Local exporters of food products (agricultural produce and processed foods) who either access US markets or aspire to do so still appear far from seized with a sense of urgency associated with the two-year-old Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA), a United States law that seeks to protect its citizens from food-borne diseases but which, simultaneously, could spell trouble for all food exporters to the US.
While the handful of large local companies with relatively significant US markets are doubtless putting mechanisms in place to ensure compliance, it is the larger number of small and micro enterprises, most of which are involved in shipping modest quantities of local condiments and fresh fruit and vegetables to niche markets comprising Guyanese and West Indians that could face difficulties.
