Chairman of The Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority Mark Humes, and the Department’s Officer-In-Charge Josefina Curry, attended the 13th session of the commission on phytosanitary measures or CPM last month in Italy.

The meeting of the CPM, the governing body of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), reviews the state of plant protection around the world, identifies action to control the spread of pests into new areas.

They also develop and adopt international standards – establishes rules and procedures for resolving disputes, adopts guidelines for the recognition of regional plant protection organizations; and cooperates with international organizations on matters covered by the Convention. 

During the five days of discussion, the delegation participated in a wide-range of topics on issues related to local and global plant health, plant protection issues.

Topics covered at the meeting included Plant Health and Trade Facilitation, Plant Health and Environment Protection, Human and Plant Health Interaction, ePhyto certification, e-Commerce, Sea Container Cleanliness, and Cooperation between Standard Setting and Standards Implementation. 

In addition, issues that have an impact on countries like The Bahamas who depend on trading large quantities of plant and plant products, like grain, fruit, vegetables or timber to sustain their economies.

They also held strategic planning meeting with regional and international plant health officials to discuss The Bahamas’ phytosanitary capacity development plan.

As a contracting member of the Commission, the Bahamas, in partnership with other CPM contracting nations, is responsible for implementing the work program of standards development, information exchange, and capacity building. 

The delegation returned to The Bahamas on Saturday, April 21st and will organize a series of information workshops for local sanitary and phytosanitary stakeholder groups.