May 28, 2015
Solutions through Stewardship: Realizing the True Potential of ASEAN Food Exports
Raghavan Sampathkumar[1]
An eFeedLink Exclusive
Status of Food Trade in ASEAN
Contribution of the agri-food industry in the economies of ASEAN countries goes beyond just meeting the food and nutritional security of billions of people to economic development and most importantly, in foreign exchange earnings as the region is aspiring to become one of the top global food exporters. Endowed with great diversity, uniqueness and inherent complementarities in terms of growing seasons, variety of crops and geographical proximity to big consuming (importing) markets, ASEAN is, indeed, well placed to be the foremost supplier of quality food to the growing population within the region and beyond. According to the report titled "Regional Trade Standards Compliance Report - East Asia 2013[2]" by UNIDO, food exports from ASEAN countries nearly tripled in ten years to cross US$ 50 billion in 2010.
Though the share of food products in total exports was small (about 1.3%), the region has great potential to increase it considerably if appropriate measures are taken up supported by enabling policies and increasing investments in infrastructure.
Key Constraints for ASEAN Food Trade: Food Safety & Quality
ASEAN certainly stands to gain from the global macro trends such as increasing population, growing incomes and purchasing powers, and an emerging middle-class in the Asia region that drive demand for food. However, there are huge challenges for the region that prevent it from realizing its true potential in taking advantage of these positive trends. Food safety and quality issues are among those major constraints that lead to particularly, rejections at the import markets. Though may not sound alarming, import rejections certainly affect all the stakeholders involved in food trade.
Firstly, rejections in import markets affect the farmers as they will not gain access if their produce do not conform to the safety and quality standards. Companies involved in sourcing and marketing will be affected due to increasing costs. Lastly but most importantly, a nation's reputation as a reliable exporter of quality food is at stake.
The study further revealed the major causes of rejections of ASEAN's food products at key import markets such as Japan and EU. For example, fruits and vegetables were among the most frequently rejected categories in Japan. The most common reasons of rejections include bacterial contamination, inadequate hygienic conditions/controls, and exceedance of MRLs (maximum residue levels) particularly of pesticides followed by presence of mycotoxins.
Although MRL exceedance for pesticides was found to be one of the major causes of rejections for fruits and vegetables, the report called for overall improvement in adoption of GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) particularly relating to procurement and/or improper usage of inputs across all the crops that have the potential to be exported from the region competitively.
Solutions to Improve Food Safety & Quality
While it was evident that non-conformance to the MRLs is one of the major impediments to enhance ASEAN's food exports, solutions for its mitigation are rather simple and practically feasible for the farmers to adopt. One of such solutions is using crop protection products responsibly and judiciously. It saves input costs for the farmers, improves conformance to MRLs and ultimately enhances their profits. It also creates trust on those countries that put in place appropriate policy measures as reliable suppliers of quality products. In this way, benefits of crop protection product stewardship are attributable to every entity in the food value chain and hence it must be regarded as a shared responsibility.
| “In crop protection products, stewardship is a holistic product life-cycle approach whereby the benefits are maximized through responsible, safe and judicious use while risks are minimized through educating the users against indiscriminate and unscrupulous usage” |
Safe and judicious use of chemicals ensures these are used appropriately only when necessary i.e. right products at the right time at the right dose using correct application methods that cause no impacts on the non-target organisms while complying with local regulations of usage only on approved crops. This ensures no excessive residues are present in the produce that is exported as non-conformance could lead to rejections at the import markets.
Hence there are enormous benefits - both tangible and intangible - to the farmers, communities, food value chain entities and consumers.
Initiatives by CropLife Asia / International Network
Committed strongly to stewardship and responsible business, CropLife International and its regional affiliate – CropLife Asia – are leading several initiatives in ASEAN countries that are aimed at promoting judicious use of crop protection products under IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and GAP since several decades.
For example, in Indonesia under a multi-stakeholder partnership project in Karo Regency, about 650 farmers were trained on IPM and responsible use. They were able to save considerably on their expenditure on of crop protection chemicals, use them judiciously and protect themselves using personal protective gear. Those who were cultivating high-value crops were able to conform to the export quality standards and realized higher profits.
Similarly, in Vietnam under the 'Safe Tea Initiative", farmers were provided hands-on trainings on safe & responsible use of crop protection chemicals, which resulted in reducing the residues to permissible levels for exports thereby improving marketability and reducing rejections in the import markets.
| “Safe and judicious use ensures chemicals are used appropriately only when necessary i.e. right products at the right time at the right dose using correct application methods while complying with local regulations on approved usage” |
ASEAN: Opportunities and Challenges
Equipping farmers and other stakeholders with necessary knowledge on food safety & quality issues is critical to maximize the benefits while minimizing risks to health and environment. However, since ASEAN is a vast region with diverse crops, land use and cultivation practices, it is an enormous challenge for any one organization to reach hundreds of millions of farmers.
To support their pursuit of feeding the billion-plus population that is growing faster than the productivity growth in key food crops in this region, synergistic partnerships are necessary for capacity building to cascade the knowledge and awareness on stewardship principles, which are key drivers of sustainable production.
CropLife Asia continues to pursue multi-stakeholder projects to reach maximum number of beneficiaries and make a positive impact on their lives through partnerships with governments, food industry and civil society.
Several organizations including Government agencies across Asia adopted the resources and materials developed by CropLife International networks for training their extension staff who in turn cascade the knowledge further to various stakeholders.
| “CropLife Asia strongly advocates for a harmonized, transparent, predictable, and science- based regulatory environment for the agri- food industry in ASEAN” |
Besides initiatives like these that help farmers improve their incomes and access to markets, CropLife Asia stands firmly to support creating enabling policies and a transparent, predictable and science-based regulatory environment including harmonization (e.g. MRLs, GAP and other standards) that can help expand food trade both within the region and with the global markets.
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[1] Stewardship Director, CropLife Asia, Singapore. Email: raghavan.s@croplifeasia.org
[2] http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media_upgrade/What_we_do/Topics/Quality_and_compliance/UNIDO-IDE-JETRO_Regional_TSC_Report-East_Asia_2013_final_ebook.pdf
