ADB supports Mongolia’s drive to boost food safety and exports

Odonchimeg 2016-04-06 09:04

Economy

The Asian Development Bank launched a project of 15 million USD to support Mongolia’s efforts to continue strengthening food safety, and animal and plant health standards to realize the country’s vast potential by increasing agri-food exports to neighboring countries.

The Asian Development Bank launched a project of 15 million USD to support Mongolia’s efforts to continue strengthening food safety, and animal and plant health standards to realize the country’s vast potential by increasing agri-food exports to neighboring countries. The project will help the Government of Mongolia continue developing internationally acceptable agri-food handling, inspection and testing measures that will allow it to boost exports and provide job and income opportunities in rural areas. The project will target improvements in laboratories in three provinces served by the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) corridor which links border crossing points critical to the movement of agricultural and food products between the Russian Federation and East Asia. The improvements will include infrastructure and equipment upgrades, and the adoption of a laboratory information management system to manage samples and analysis. Assistance will be given to establish a sanitary and phytosanitary inspection management system that will incorporate risk-based import controls to automate risk assessment. The project will allow Mongolia to take the lead in promoting sanitary and phytosanitary reforms across the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation region.