Industry and Commerce minister Mike Bimha (pictured) officially launched the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) Chromatography Laboratory project yesterday, which was funded by the European Union at a cost of €3 million.
BY TARISAI MANDIZHA
Speaking at the launch of the laboratory in Harare yesterday, Bimha said the development would enable SAZ to test and detect trace elements in food and feed stuffs. He said this will go a long way in satisfying the requirements of food producers and ultimately enhance the competitiveness of Zimbabwean products within and beyond the borders.
“SAZ mission is to facilitate the development and use of standards in order to enhance Zimbabwe’s competitiveness and safeguard the welfare of communities benefited from the Trade and Private Sector Development Programme (TPSDP) funded by the European Union (EU) and supported by the international Trade Centre (ITC) to refurbish the head office basement and converted it into a chromatography laboratory.
“This laboratory will be of benefit to organisations exporting to the EU, as they will be able to verify the conformity of their products against set standards and specifications.
“This will indeed promote trade with the EU in the framework of trade preferences given by the Interim Economic Partnership. This will also benefit organisations trading in the continent in the region and locally,” he said.
Bimha said the initiative would go a long way in ensuring food safety and quality with respect to imports or exports, which was in line with government’s initiatives to ensure safety and quality of local and imported products.
SAZ provides comprehensive testing,inspection, calibration and certification services for organisations and various products on the market, converted part of its basement into a laboratory in pursuit of its vision, with the aim of increasing its scope of testing services.
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Speaking at the same event EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Philippe Van Damme said the €3 million project was aimed at fostering Zimbabwe’s economic recovery, diversification and ultimately poverty reduction.
“The laboratory is a welcome development to the Zimbabwe quality and standard landscape. It can help Zimbabwe to export a wider variety of products and enhance acceptability of these products locally, regionally and internationally. But of course, the laboratory is only a means in support of a policy and therefore is a necessary but not yet a sufficient condition for export success.
“ For the laboratory to become a real success, all stakeholders have seen the interest of the new facility , which implies immaculate corporate governance based on transparency and accountability, but also a series of policy measures required to stimulate investment,” Van Damme said.
He said if these policies are put right the laboratory will notably benefit the horticulture sector which was an important sector because of its significant potential contribution to exports.
He, however, said the expected long term impact would be an increase in production and employment, increased welfare effects and ultimately reduced poverty levels in line with the overarching goal of EU development assistance.
He added that the sector, which was predominately composed of Small to Medium Enterprises will be able to meet the requirements of food safety and quality resulting in increased exports of agricultural products and enhanced competitiveness of Zimbabwean products within and beyond the country’s borders
Van Damme also announced that the EU had begun implementation of the complementary EU-funded €950 000 project focusing on sanitary and phytosanitary standards and the project will mainly target the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant stakeholders.
Furthermore, the EU and the government of Zimbabwe were presently working to put in place another €7,5 million project to support the implementation of the economic partnership agreement
He added that all these projects are in addition to the mainstay support that the EU is giving to the country under the 11th EDF €234 million National Indicative Programme.
