Guyana’s coconut industry is to benefit from a contract signed between the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the Jamaican food technology consulting firm, Technological Solutions Limited (TSL), to revise the CARICOM Code of Practice and Standards for the packaging of natural coconut water. The current regional standard has been in place since 2010.
Under the new standard six areas have been identified for attention, including food safety evaluation; recognition of testing facility compliance; chain of custody for samples; sampling regime; testing protocols, procedures and sampling; and the testing environment.
The contract stipulates the holding of industry stakeholder meetings in Guyana, St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Suriname and Jamaica to address prevailing practices and issues in the sector, to analyse the latest technology being used, to assess the prospects for trade in the sector and to seek to determine how the Standards and Code of Practice can facilitate growth in the industry in selected territories in the region. The Guyana stakeholders meeting took place on Wednesday September 12.
