Agriculture ministry moves to stem yam crisis

US rejects 11 shipments since December

Jamaica Observer

Monday, February 20, 2012

CONCERNED over the rejection of 11 shipments of yam by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Ministry of Agriculture is moving to minimise further damage to the exports of the produce.

In a release today the ministry revealed that the FDA found trace amount of CarbendazimThiophanate Methyl – (Topsin) and Azoxystrobin which are way below accepted norms. The US has not accepted these chemicals as post harvest treatments for yams and therefore has a zero tolerance approach. The trace amount of these chemicals is not a threat to public health.

"The importance of yam exports especially yellow yam cannot be overstated as it represents the single largest non-traditional export with the United States accounting for approximately 75% of non- traditional agricultural exports. The value of yam exports to the United States in 2011 was over US$ 27.7 million dollars," the release stated.

The Ministry said it has made the following interventions:

A Ministry Task Force comprising the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, RADA, Research and Development (R & D) and Plant Quarantine are now conducting an investigation along the entire value chain to identify the source of the problem and provide technical support to both farmers and exporters to address the immediate concern.

The Government is working to immediately bolster our capacity to conduct the necessary testing to detect these residues so as to allow for local testing to minimize losses when containers are shipped. In this regard, it has been established that the appropriate equipment exist at the University of the West Indies, the Scientific Research Council and private labs and that all that is required is to procure the necessary standards to effect the testing regime. This is being done immediately. It should be noted that the existing legal framework does not provide compulsory testing of products of plant origin prior to export. However, given the seriousness of the crisis, exporters are voluntarily subjecting themselves to this regime. In the meantime, the Ministry is taking steps to revise the current legal framework to make it mandatory as obtains with products of animal origin.

The Ministry recognises that ultimately we can only avoid this problem as well as increase our exports and penetrate deeper into US markets if we switch from exporting cut yams to mini set whole and processed yam. It is the cutting of the yam that necessitates the treatment by the chemical in the first place.

The Ministry has formulated a Yam Development Plan focused on among other things, the commercialization of mini set yams. Currently through its agencies and working with UWI along with other private sector players, a number of plots of mini-sett yams were planted last year, the results of which will be evaluated later this year. Based on the outcome of the evaluation of the existing plots, plans are being finalised with our farmers and private and institutional partners for a full scale rollout of the mini-set programme.

The Ministry also expressed its committment to working with agro-processors to significantly expand our exports of minimally processed vacuum packed yams.