Invitation to participate in Regional Market Access Capacity Building Programme
Food Safety project hosted by Caribbean Export Development Agency and EU-ACP TBT Programme
Phase 1 (Capacity Building of Food Safety Service Providers)
Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) is partnering with the European Union-African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Technical Barriers to Trade Programme (EU-ACP-TBT Programme) on the delivery of a Regional Market Access Capacity Building Programme. This is a comprehensive one-year programme aimed at up-skilling Food Safety Service Providers and Quality Assurance Managers from agro processing companies in three CARIFORUM countries (Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic). It will facilitate the provision of high quality services to firms in the agro-processing industry in order to develop their ability to effectively compete in the North American and EU markets.
The overall objective of the project, which will be executed over two phases, include:
- Phase 1: To strengthen the technical capacity of 20 services providers in the field of food safety certification in the identified member states;
- Phase 2: To strengthen the export capacity of 30 – 40 agro processing companies with the emphasis on food safety.
The aim of Phase 1 is to build a pool of competent service providers to provide training and technical services to private sector companies, including the companies to be trained under Phase 2.
The aim of Phase 2 is to build the export capacity of 30 – 40 private sector firms in the area of food safety management in order to increase exports to the US and EU markets.
Caribbean Export would like to invite interested Food Safety Service Providers (including certification bodies) in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic to submit applications to participate in the first phase of the project.
The target group of this phase are service providers involved in food safety certification including:
- Private Consultants
- Standards Bureaus
- Ministries of Health and Agriculture
- Accredited Laboratories
- Certification Bodies
The project is being executed by D’Appolonia S.p.A. out of Genova, Italy. More information on this firm can be obtained at http://www.dappolonia.it/en
Training and capacity building activities for service providers will be undertaken under the following 7 modules:
Module 1 – Traceability
Module 2 – Quality Management Systems
Module 3 – HACCP
Module 4 – EU Food Safety regulations
Module 5 – ISO 22000:2005
Module 6 – PAS 220
Module 7 – US Food Safety regulations
All modules will be delivered in English
Training Programmes are tentatively expected to be delivered over the course of 5 days in each country as indicated:
Jamaica: May 30th – June 3rd
Dominican Republic: June 6th – 10th
Trinidad and Tobago: June 13th – 17th
Please see attached supporting documents for more information.
Eligibility Criteria
- Participants must have at least 2 years’ experience in the provision of food safety management and certification services to private sector firms and must belong to the target group stated above;
- Participants should be CARIFORUM nationals based in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic
- Service Providers must have at least basic knowledge on food safety management systems (GMPs, HACCP and/or ISO22000)
- Participants are expected to contribute in the training programmes and technical capacity building sessions (under the supervision of D’Appolonia S.p.A) for private sector firms identified in Phase 2 of this project.
Interested persons must submit the online Expression of Interest no later than May 1, 2016 at 4:30pm Barbados Time
All participation is subject to approval from Caribbean Export.