Meeting European Union's food and agricultural products imports standards: Challenges and opportunities for developing countries

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the European Union (EU) sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPSS) regulations and Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) mode of operation for importing food and agricultural products from developing countries. The authors discussed different EU’s rules for importing food and agricultural products from developing countries. These includes food hygiene packing, hazard analysis of critical control point (HACCP), Traceability and RASFF activities. Accessing EU markets is not an easy tasks for agro-food industries among developing countries. Although there is no any barrier for trade to EU markets, but the stringent sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPSS) make it difficult for developing countries to export their Food and Agricultural Products into EU markets.

This paper aims to examine the European Union (EU) sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPSS) regulations and Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) mode of operation for importing food and agricultural products from developing countries. The authors discussed different EU’s rules for importing food and agricultural products from developing countries. These includes food hygiene packing, hazard analysis of critical control point (HACCP), Traceability and RASFF activities. Accessing EU markets is not an easy tasks for agro-food industries among developing countries. Although there is no any barrier for trade to EU markets, but the stringent sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPSS) make it difficult for developing countries to export their Food and Agricultural Products into EU markets.