Implementation of UNECE Standards for Agricultural Products in Trade Seminar

1. Implementation of UNECE Standards for Agricultural Products in Trade Seminar on the Implementation of UNECE Standards in Trade Vilnius, Lithuania, 29 October 2004 Tom Heilandt United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

2. Outline • Meat as a commodity • Multiplicity or rules • About quality

3. Trading in meat is expensive and difficult A Non-standard raw material

4. A complicated commodity • Meat is a complicated commodity • Many different actors are involved • Many rules covering meat trade from the stable to the table

5. Many rules • There are international rules: Codex Alimentarius, OIE, UNECE, ISO, World Customs Organizations etc. • There are implementations of international rules and proprietary rules in countries and regional country groupings (e.g. European Union) • There are private rules: Global food safety initiative, Eurepgap • There are WTO rules about how rules should be made in order to ensure fair trade

6. A long distribution chain… farmer with cow transport cattle market transport transport abattoirs abattoirs packing plant factory restaurant butcher supermarket consumer

7. All are customers • Households • Point of sale • Processors • Abattoirs • Farmers

8. “Administrative” Rules • Rules about customs procedures • Rules about transport and handling • Rules about labelling and accompanying documents • Etc.

9. “Quality rules” for the process and the product • The expected properties as broadly defined in ISO 9000:2000: “The totality of features and characteristics of a product, process or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs” • "excellence" – something that distinguishes from similar objects that justifies demand.

10. Expected properties: Generic quality level of food products • Absence of defect, fraud and adulteration (e.g. food safety, quality defects) – regulated in food safety and quality standards • Presence of expected properties (e.g nutritional components, external and internal quality aspects) – regulated or starting to be in food quality or labelling standards

11. Excellence: Specific quality of food products • Added value through: • Forms of production (organic farming, environmental consideration, animal welfare), • Specific production areas (designation of origin) and their associated traditional production methods. • High interest in this area: • Operators try to distinguish their products from similar ones to attract customer attention and fidelity • Regulators provide a legal framework.

12. Implementation of rules • Mandatory rules are implemented because their non-implementation would have severe consequences (legal or financial) • Recommendations are implemented because: • it makes sense, • it is demanded by the buyer, • Everybody uses them

13. Possibilities for Implementation of UNECE standards UNECE Standard Government European Commission Trade Codex Alimentarius OECD Scheme National Standard Commission Regulation Codex Standard Explanatory Brochure Trade Standard

14. UNECE Standards for Meat • UNECE Standards for Meat are Recommendations • They define a common trading language for buyers and sellers • The more they are used – the more useful they become • They are used because they facilitate trade and ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business

15. For all species…

16. Why do we need a common language? • Consider a pork belly boneless & rindless • Denmark 1808 • British 55211 • British (Meat Buyers Guide) 314 (only bone in) • USA (NAMP-Meat Buyers Guide) 409 • USA (NPPC) 3620 • Aus 4332 (single ribbed)

17. Why do we need a common language? • Long distribution chain with critical processes to control • Specification is primarily visual • Normal communications are non-visual • Product is primarily judged on appearance

18. Cost of problems • Consumer confidence in product performance • Buyer and seller interface confidence • Increasingly expensive quality control • Expensive communications • travel • time & resources

19. Standards are needed… • To define common trading language for all actors in the supply chain • To facilitate fair international trade • To avoid bad quality products on the markets • To guide producers to meet market requirements • To build trust and market opportunities • To encourage high quality production • To improve producers’ profitability • To protect consumers’ interests • Remove technical barriers to trade

20. A new system • Imagine a system that enables all parties in the distribution chain to have the same unambiguous specification for transactions • the same picture • the same language • the same critical information (weight, colour, texture, cutting lines) • All of this applicable to standard and non-standard requirements

21. Added value • cross reference to national standards • reduces language problems • low communication costs • speculative market for buyers and sellers • product data

22. Applications • Government and other official bodies • Health professionals • Meat inspection services • Meat purchasing (commercial and official) • Meat traders and meat plants • Training organisations • Veterinary (practice and training)

23. UNECE Standards for Meat • Porcine Meat - Carcases and Cuts - 1998 - currently being revised • Bovine Meat - Carcases and Cuts - 2004 • Ovine Meat - Carcases and Cuts - 2004 • Chicken Meat - Carcases and Parts – 2004 • Llama/Alpaca Meat - 2004 • Other standards planned: Goat, Turkey, Veal

24. Minimum requirements

25. Purchaser specified requirements

26. Multilingual dictionary

27. Primal cuts

28. Cut descriptions

29. Bovine Coding (01) 91234567890121 - Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) (3102) 000376 - Net Weight, kilograms (7002) 15111110205142111 - UN/ECE Meat Carcasses and Cuts Code (13) 001231 - Slaughter/Packaging Date (10) 123ABC - Batch Number

30. Principles for the Development of UNECE Standards • All relevant actors in the supply chain (buyers, sellers, retailers, producers, consumers etc. through their associations) should participate • Cooperation with other international organizations should be sought and any duplication avoided • All UN member countries can participate with the same rights • Decisions are taken on a consensus basis

31. Organizational Structure ECOSOC Economic Commission for Europe Committee for Trade, Industry and Enterprise Development Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards Specialized Section on Standardization of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Dry and Dried Fruit Seed Potatoes Meat

32. Participation in different committees Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, European Community

33. Why participate in standardization? • To be integrated in the international trading system (to contribute and decide) • To propose standards for local products for which international standards do not exist • To network, exchange experiences, learn from others

34. Products with future • High quality products which can command a high price • Promotion of “brand awareness” for local products (controlled origin labels) • Organic produce

35. UNECE standards and meeting information on the internet • Http://www.unece.org/trade/agr/welcome.htm

36. Agriculture and trade: keys to civilization • We all need to eat! • We need to get the right quantity of good quality food • How we get our food and what we eat determines how we live. • Agriculture and trade have given us the time to create the civilization we know today.

37. The role of agriculture • Agriculture should give all of us: • Enough, affordable, safe, healthy, tasty food • That has been produced in a sustainable way, with respect to our environment and the other creatures with who we share this planet; and • Agriculture should give those who work there a fair income and good working conditions

38. The Nutrition Transition

39. Modern agriculture: A success story! • More people than ever before have enough to eat and pay less for it • Our numbers have increased – the percentage of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition has decreased • Average life expectancy has increased • Science and technology allow us to produce more with less workers • There is more choice in food products than ever before and most products are available all year around in many places • ...

40. Modern agriculture: A success story? • People are still starving or suffer from malnutrition in some countries • In the same countries and elsewhere a growing number of people die from eating too much and inadequate food (too much fat, too much sugar) • Small farmers have problems competing • Many people complain about the taste of fruit and vegetables • Intensive agriculture creates problems with soils and water • Intensive agriculture creates new food safety problems • ...

41. Could we do it differently? • Good traditional cooking and gastronomy use high quality, natural ingredients and are healthy and tasty • Good quality food is not necessarily expensive or difficult to prepare • Competition could be based first on quality then on price

42. Values and education • Problems: Irresponsible profit thinking and missing education • Profit thinking can be a source of motivation – it is missing values and responsibility that create problems • We need responsible, well informed actors in the food supply chain from the producers to the consumers

43. A good diet – the key to health

44. Trade in agricultural products in the ECE region in 1949 • Countries use national quality standards to regulate trade within their borders • Producers market • Growing interest in international trade • Existing national regulations become barriers to international trade

45. Harmonization of national standards • 1949 The Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards takes up its work at UNECE in Geneva • 1954 The Geneva Protocol and Standard Layout are adopted

46. Aspects of quality: Commercial quality • No quality without safety • Quality is MORE than safety. • Commercial quality is a set of parameters describing internal and external characteristics of the produce, which are necessary to ensure transparency in trade and good eating quality.

47. Commercial quality Aspects of quality: Expected properties of food products External Cleanliness Color Freshness Shape Presentation Packing… Internal Taste Maturity Nutrition…

48. Evaluation of commercial quality • Subjective • Sensorial caracteristics (taste, smell, texture, color…) • Objective • Analytical or physical measurements

49. UNECE Standard Layout • Definition of produce • Minimum requirements • Maturity requirements (objective) • Classification (Extra, class I, class II) • Sizing provisions • Tolerances (quality, size) • Presentation (uniformity, packaging) • Marking • Annexes: Definitions, Lists of varieties, Testing and Sampling procedures, Definitions

50. Process of developing a UNECE standard Specialized Section and Working Party agree to create/amend a standard Rapporteur prepares/amends text Specialized Section discusses text in detail Working Party discusses text in general UNECE Standard UNECE Recommendation trial period (1-3 years)