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UNIDO supports development of a global sustainable botanical/herbal supplier market from small islands…5 Tongans trained as PCQIs to pilot a zero carbon U.S. FDA-registered food facility
FSPCA Lead Instructor teaches course on U.S. food safety best practices at Pacific Region training
Samoa FSPCA Team – Led by ‘Emeline Laumanu
31 July 2023, Nukuʻalofa, Kingdom of Tonga: On 7th July 2023, the United States (US)-based Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) awarded, for the first time, certificates of training to five participants from the Kingdom of Tonga, in recognition of having successfully completed the 20-hour FSPCA Course: FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food. The course, supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centers (GN-SEC), was delivered by FSPCA Lead Instructor Heather Neves Duncan Fairman and taught by virtual means of videoconferencing in Tonga, from 4-7 July 2023.
Taught over four days, the course is designed to meet the current U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Control Qualified Individual (PCQI) requirement in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-registered food facility. Participants learned the principles for developing a Food Safety Plan through a robust Hazard Analysis and the development of Risk-Based Preventive Controls and their management components. The materials and curriculum are FDA-recognized. Additional food safety topics and the FDA’s Draft Guidance to Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls (HARPC) were covered. Concurrent Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles were included and covered.
FSPCA Lead Instructor Heather Fairman, who is a member of the SIDS DOCK Island Women Open Network (IWON) Committee, said that in 2018, the SIDS DOCK Member States launched the IWON Pilot Initiative: Development of a Global Sustainable Botanical/Herbal Supplier Market From SIDS DOCK Member States, that is being supported by UNIDO and the GN-SEC, in partnership with the U.S.-based law firm, Rivkin Radler, LLP, and Ullman, Shapiro & Ullman, of Counsel (U.S. FDA attorneys), and GRID-Arendal, Norway. The Pilot “Botanical/Herbal Project” in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), coordinated by the SIDS DOCK Secretariat where Fairman is the IWON Advisor for the project, is an innovative social enterprise initiative with the mission to achieve sustainable, scalable impact at the nexus of women’s empowerment, energy, poverty, and climate change.
Fairman said the project is part of the “President’s Personal Initiative for the Commercial-Scale Deployment of SIDS-Appropriate Technologies,” launched in 2022, by the Honourable Siaosi ‘Ofakivahafolau Sovaleni (Hon. Huʻakavameiliku), Prime Minister of His Majesty’s Government of the Kingdom of Tonga and President of the sixth session of the SIDS DOCK Assembly, and promotes climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, sustainable livelihoods, sustainable investments in clean energy and looking at multiple value chains – “from the farm to the fork.” This project has the potential to build climate resilience through the introduction and deployment of SIDS-Appropriate Sustainable Energy Technologies to help drive market competitiveness, such as: solar photovoltaic (PV), solar water heating and cooling, wind, ocean and biogas/biodiesel.
Martin Lugmayr, Industrial Development Expert, Energy Systems and Industrial Decarbonization Unit, UNIDO, congratulated the participants on this important achievement. He said, UNIDO aims to boost SIDS-SIDS cooperation on clean energy island solutions contributing to productive uses, including in agriculture and food processing. In this context, he said the overall objective of the partnership in support of the IWON Botanical/Herbal Project is to contribute to the decoupling of agri-business value chains and food security from expensive fossil fuel spending and imports. He highlighted innovative solutions like the proposed Zero Carbon U.S. FDA-registered food facility in Tonga, to supply, process, manufacture and pack raw materials from Tonga and surrounding Pacific SIDS.
For ‘Emeline Fatai Veikoso Laumanu, becoming a PCQI means that she is, “qualified to assist Tonga and the region in an integrated project that can address enhancement of biodiversity, agriculture outputs, livelihoods and improving food and energy security for all.” As Deputy Director in the Department of Energy, in the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC), the government Ministry responsible for coordinating the Tonga Botanical/Herbal Project, Mrs. Laumanu, who is also a member of the IWON Committee, is well-placed to help oversee the Tonga Pilot Project for the Design, Development and Construction of a Zero Carbon U.S. FDA-registered food facility for scaling up across other small islands.
The Kingdom of Tonga (population 106,858) is located in the South Pacific Ocean and comprises about 150 islands, but only about 36 of the islands are currently inhabited. Tongatapu, the largest of the Tongan islands where over 70 percent of the population live, and the site of the capital Nuku‘alofa, is a low, flat limestone island covered with a thick layer of volcanic ash and uplifted on the south coast where it reaches a maximum elevation of about 80 metres (260 feet). The island’s rich soil is under extensive cultivation to support the large population of the island. Agriculture is the main economic activity after services and the sector contributes approximately 16 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); watermelons, coconuts, bananas, and vanilla beans are the primary crops. Now, Tonga has plans to take additional products native to the island to the global markets, and the country is engaged in participating in the development of certain Pacific regional strategies that will produce raw materials listed for “farm to fork” production at the proposed Zero Carbon food facility.
Mahina Fifita, Ministry of Health Pharmacist at the Vaiola Hospital, said the course was “very informative and engaging, it taught me so much in terms of food safety and its supply chain.” As the hospital pharmacist, she is responsible for dispensing medications and providing drug-related advice to patients. Ms. Fifita knows much about the country’s various herbal and botanical plant properties, and she says that the proposed food facility will be capable of producing a consistently high-quality product for export to the U.S. Annelise Halafihi, Senior Agricultural Officer, Food Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAFF), “highly recommends this training for any Food Specialist or Inspector who is looking to build their capacity in the Food Safety Sector.” Ms. Halafihi has management responsibilities that include developing novel food products in accordance to the MAFF Corporate Plan. She said a U.S FDA-registered food facility would allow Tonga to take those novel food products to the next stage – the export market. For Asena Faanunu, Agricultural Officer at the MAFF, the FSPCA training “greatly complimented” her role as MAFF’s packhouse Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Supervisor and an export facilitator. She said that most foods are exported to the U.S., and are for informal markets with exports targeted for families and Tongan communities.
“With this course, I will be able to create a food safety plan for all food businesses in Tonga, particularly those that are not able to be certified with a HACCP programme,” she said. The Botanical/Herbal Pilot Project supports women in agriculture, who play important roles as, amongst other things, food producers, income earners, nurturers, and managers of natural resources, although their efficiency in executing these roles is conditional on the degree to which they are entitled to factors of production.
Tonga’s main trading partners are New Zealand, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. The marketing and export of products to these countries is one of the major responsibilities of Dan Savia ‘Atuekaho, Principal Trade Officer, Ministry of Trade and Economic Development (MTED), who supervises Tonga’s Export Programme. He summed up the sentiments of all the participants when he said, “this is the most crucial capacity-building in my career, especially the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act standards.”
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SIDS DOCK is a United Nations (UN)-recognised international organisation established in 2015, with all the rights and privileges for addressing climate change, resilience, and energy security in small islands. SIDS DOCK represents 32 small islands and low-lying developing states across the globe. It is so named because it is designed as a “DOCKing station” to connect the energy sector in SIDS with the global markets for finance and sustainable energy technologies. The organisation’s work is coordinated by the Secretariat in Belmopan, Belize.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
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Christine Neves Duncan Chief of Staff & Project DirectorSIDS DOCK Secretariat Belmopan, Belize cduncan@sidsdock.org
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Emeline Veikoso Laumanu Energy Officer Specialist |
Martin Lugmayr Industrial Development Expert Energy Systems and Industrial Decarbonization Unit
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