The Foreign Economic Cooperation Center (FECC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of the People’s Republic of China, in partnership with the Mekong Institute and with support from the “Greater Mekong Subregion Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security Program (SAFSP),” is hosting the Virtual Training Workshop on Lancang-Mekong Agro-Products Quality and Safety Inspection and Testing on 15-19 August 2022.

The training is in follow up to the online training workshop on Agro-products Quality and Safety Management, Inspection and Testing for Lancang-Mekong Countries held in August 2021, organized by FECC MARA of the PRC. 

Objectives

The training workshop aims to strengthen the know-how and capacities across Lancang-Mekong countries in agro-product quality assurance and safety inspection and testing by: 

• improving participants’ knowledge and understanding of international agro-product quality and safety standard systems, 
• enhancing the participants’ knowledge and technical capacity on agricultural certification, inspection, testing, and traceability,  
• establishing an informal network of government officials and inspectors committed to information-sharing for the promotion and development of food safety standards in the region.  

The third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting, held in 2020, resulted in a call to upgrade the agro-product quality and food safety systems in the subregion, strengthen its competitiveness in agriculture and accelerate the implementation of the Three-Year Action Plan on Lancang-Mekong Agricultural Cooperation (2020-2022).

Target participants

The event primarily targets government representatives from agriculture and related departments, academia, testing agencies and the private sector.  A limited number of participants (around 20) will be given the opportunity to join from the Mekong Institute premises in Khon Kaen, Thailand.