Proceedings of the FAO/AFMA workshop on quality and safety in the traditional horticultural marketing chains of Asia

Esguerra, E.B. (ed.); Cadilhon, J-J. (ed.); Shepherd, A.W. (ed.);Agriculture Group

Proceedings of the FAO/AFMA workshop on quality and safety in the traditional horticultural marketing chains of Asia

Autores

Esguerra, E.B. (ed.); Cadilhon, J-J. (ed.); Shepherd, A.W. (ed.);Agriculture Group

Descripción

Thanks to increased agricultural production and better marketing facilities, poverty and food insecurity are less of a problem in many Asian countries than was the case a few years ago. The new preoccupation of countries in the region is on quality and safety. FAO has been working to improve quality and safety in Asian countries through a wide range of interventions to enhance their capacity to meet international food quality and sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and to establish and maintai n appropriate regulations, monitoring and surveillance. One such intervention is the programme on enhancing food quality and safety by strengthening handling, processing and marketing in the food chain, under which the above workshop was carried out. Held in Bangkok, Thailand from 7 to 10 November 2005, it was the first attempt by FAO to approach quality and safety issues from a marketing perspective. The main issue considered was: What are the constraints faced by farmers and traders in the tra ditional horticultural supply chains to bring safe and quality produce to market? This report provides summaries of the 21 papers and country case studies discussed which focused on identifying ways to overcome constraints on improving traditional marketing channels (complete case studies are provided in the annexes). Conclusions and recommendations are also included in the report.