After the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, the body responsible for food safety, evaluated positively data received from Bosnia and Herzegovina and gave a green light to the European Commission to prepare a Regulation declaring Bosnia and Herzegovina free from potato ring rot, Director of the BiH Plant Health Administration Radenko Radović expressed satisfaction that the years of work have finally produced result.
He stressed that the greatest benefit will be felt by potato producers in BiH, expressing the belief that this will be a positive stimulus to the development of vegetable production, but also of entire agriculture sector in the country.
“I wish to especially emphasize that we have managed to establish a functional phytosanitary system in BiH in the field of plant health and show that we can manage a complicated administrative system organized at different levels of government with a clear division of responsibilities,” said Radović.
He reminded that this system, apart from the Administration for Plant Health as the central body responsible for plant health constitutes of the Ministries of Agriculture of RS and the FBiH and the Department of Agriculture of the Government of Brčko District, the inspectorates of the entities and Brčko District and phytosanitary laboratories.
He stressed that now we need to be patient and wait for the compliance with the legal procedures in the European Commission, which may take a certain time, but expressed hope that the procedure would be carried out as soon as possible.
“When the decision on derogation is adopted and announced, which will practically allow the export of potatoes to EU countries, it will be necessary to continue strengthening the level reached in the sector of potato health, that will certainly be subject to controls of the FVO inspection,” underlined Radović.
At its meeting on 26/27 March 2015, the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, the body responsible for food safety, evaluated positively data received from Bosnia and Herzegovina and gave a green light to the European Commission to prepare a Regulation declaring Bosnia and Herzegovina free from potato ring rot.
(Source: Fena)
