24.01.2023
HE Mr. Ambassador Abdullah Mohamed Almowed met with the Head of Food Safety Agency, Mr Qoshgar Tahmazli.
Possibilities and opportunities in the field of exports and imports of food products, in addition to discussing ways of cooperation opportunities and encouraging cooperation between the concerned circles in the two countries were discussed during the meeting.
After exchanging expressions of welcome and courtesy, Mr Tahmazli talked about the agency's work and the goals it seeks to achieve through cooperation with their partners in foreign countries, explaining that the agency was established about 5 years ago and one of its most important functions is the state's control over protecting the rights of consumers of food products and controlled goods. Government veterinary and phytosanitary management of risks and crisis situations in the field of food, regulation of plant protection products, fungicides, pesticides, veterinary medicines, regulation of feed and feed additives, inspection of plant and animal products, food quality control, from farm to fork, as well as state policy and regulations in the aforementioned field.
The head of the authority stated that as of January 1, 2023, a new law in the field of food safety has been adopted in the country and the powers of the agency have been increased. There is a food safety institute affiliated to the agency and it has 17 laboratories. 6 of the laboratories are located in the city of Baku and its environs, i.e. on the Absheron Peninsula. The remaining laboratories are located in other regions of the country. These factories are among the strongest in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Western Europe, and some of them do not exist in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He has extensive experience in the field of examining animal, plant and food products and identifying toxic substances.
He stressed that the institution he heads enjoys cooperative relations with its counterparts in various countries and has been able in recent years to develop its relations with the economic and food circles in the countries of the Middle East. He noted that it is advisable to organize an official visit of the Agency's management and experts to Kuwait.
Mr Ambassador assured Mr Tahmazli the desire of the Kuwaiti side to develop relations with Azerbaijan in the economic fields, including in the field of food safety and the export and import of plant and animal products and that the agency's role in the state's economy as the main body that guarantees food safety, which is an element that guarantees human health is very important. I indicated that the two institutions are present in this field in Kuwait. One of them is the Food and Nutrition Authority, which is an independent institution. The second institution is called the General Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources, and it is affiliated with the government. It would be better for the food safety agency to establish cooperative relations with both agencies. Where I inquired from His Excellency about the available areas for cooperation, the existing laws in this field in Azerbaijan, the requirements for exporting and importing food products, the quantity allowed for exporting foodstuffs, plant and animal materials, their types, and so on.
