The general impression about the Near East and North Africa is determined by violent conflicts, civil wars and religious tensions. Meanwhile, there are over 400 million consumers, of which a substantial part has high standard of living with sufficient purchase power. Besides that, a number of countries, not directly confronted with violent conflicts, is growing economically and an increasing standard of living. These countries are Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.
Last decade, the awareness for food security by the governments grew rapidly. One major concern is the lack of water in the region. It limits the possibility to produce enough raw materials for food production, including feed materials. It led to the current policy to develop the animal protein production by livestock and aqua farming to a higher level of self-sufficiency. This agricultural activity is still substantially based on the import of feed ingredients. Protein feed ingredients are imported from North & South America and India. Cereals are imported from USA, Argentina, Black Sea region, Russia; while micro-components (vitamins, enzymes, minerals, etc.) originate from China mainly.
Food safety becomes more important. Therefore, feed safety assurance is getting more attention. We notice a relatively substantial growing number of GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance (FSA) certificates. Ultimo 2016, the total number reached 60 GMP+ FSA certificates in 8 countries in the Near East and North Africa. The increase is over 40% compared with 2015. Primarily, it is for use in the domestic markets and partly for export destinations.
The most important countries regarding GMP+ FSA certification are Turkey, Morocco and Cyprus. Upcoming countries are Israel, Egypt and United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, we notice a serious interest for GMP+ FSA certification in Oman, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
This growing number of GMP+ FSA participation in this region is encouraging. A growing participation in feed safety assurance contributes to GMP+ International’s goal: safe food from animal origin available in every home worldwide.
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