Business View Caribbean - June 2016 13
the consumers believe that they are getting a high-
quality product while they are actually getting prod-
ucts with less quality and deliberate mislabeling.”
An example, she said, is fish from the genus Pan-
gasius, a catfish primarily sourced from the Asian
market, which is being sold cheaply in the region
and marketed at times as “grouper” -- not only at
supermarkets but also at some restaurants.
“While in Iceland, I learned that deliberate mislabel-
ing of food, the substitution of products with cheap-
er alternatives, and false statements about the ori-
gin of foods, are all food fraud,” Mateo said.
“This is relevant to the Dominican Republic and the
Caribbean, where imported fish are in some cases
marketed at lower prices than the local ones, not
only due to the lower production cost of fish prod-
ucts such as tilapia and Pangasius (catfish – sold as
‘basa’ or ‘swai’) in comparison with those produced
in the country, but also because of unfair practices
in trade,” Mateo said.
She said that as a result of the Iceland training, the
Dominican Republic is now in the final stage of build-
ing an improved national SPS system for fishery and
aquaculture products which was initiated with the
support of the government of Chile.
Whereas the move to implement SPS measures
was originally focused on export trade, regional ex-
perts also indicate that they are vital to food safety
and health even within the region. “The Caribbean
is known to be a huge importer of food products,”
Sosa noted. “We have to look after our population,
we have to look after the health of our people, we
have to look after the health of our environment and
our agricultural products; and thus SPS -- although
at this point it is mostly the industrialized countries
that are pushing it, that are requiring it—should be
really and truly across the board.”
Science-based risk assessment and risk analysis of
imports are also key in protecting vital agriculture
and fisheries industries. “We have been mandat-
ed with the task of being the gatekeepers when it
comes to food safety and agricultural health and we
take that responsibility very seriously. Sometimes
the public will get angry with us, because they truly
don’t understand why we are doing this. ‘Why can’t
I bring this across the border?’ But the realization is
that if a disease [is introduced], it could potentially
destroy an entire industry -- whether it be, for ex-
ample, bringing across poultry with avian influenza,
or bringing in diseased shrimp—it could wipe out an
entire multi-million-dollar industry,” Sosa warned.
Sosa noted that SPS measures were initially geared
towards industrial markets but now they are en-
couraging small producers to position themselves
for export by implementing SPS measures. “They
might not have the finance to construct an elabo-
rate facility, but we can start with the basics,” he
said, pointing to “good manufacturing practices and
the sanitation standard operating procedures which
would build confidence in products from even small
producers.” More importantly, he said, implement-
ing SPS measures is the first step that producers
will need to make to even think about trading on the
world market.
