TITLE: Institutional capacity for standards conformity assessment on spices and challenges for Tanzania

1. TITLE: Institutional capacity for standards conformity assessment on spices and challenges for Tanzania Paper presented in the 2nd SAFE project workshop held at Oceanic hotel in Bagamoyo, Coast region, Tanzania on Thursday 10th January, 2008. AUTHORS: A. Akyoo and E. Lazaro

2. Introduction Conformity assessment: any procedure, direct or indirect, that is used to determine that relevant requirements in technical regulations or standards are fulfilled Institutions: ? formal rules include laws, contracts, political systems, organizations, and markets ? informal rules include norms, traditions, customs, value systems, religions, and social trends • Institutional capacity in this sense: existing institutions / organizations /firms that have the requisite equipments and qualified staff to carry out conformity assessment

3. INTRODUCTION CONT”D • Destination markets for Tanzanian spices ?Domestic market – Village mkts, urban markets, Bulking mkt ?Regional markets within Africa – Comoro, Kenya, DRC, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Burundi etc. ?Asian export markets – Gulf states, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India etc ?EU market – Germany and the Netherlands

4. INTRODUCTION CONT”D Objective ? to evaluate prevailing local capacity to carry out standards conformity assessment on EU spices imports from Tanzania. ? Why focus on EU? Domestic mkt does not observe national standards. Regional and Asian mkts absorb the same product as that which is traded on the domestic mkt. EU mkt observe international safety standards. A big mkt (22% of world spice imports) that any LDC would like to access. ? Importance of conformity assessment In theory; enhances compliance to standards at a lower cost (lower compliance costs) Protection to local exporters in case of unfavourable abroad test results

5. Approach ?Review of literature Establish standards inherent in each market ?Survey four major laboratories in Dar ¦TBS, TIRDO - MIT ¦TFDA, and GCLA – Ministry of Health ?Key informant interviews

6. National (Local) quality standards

7. National stds cont’d –Microbiological specification

8. EU safety standards on spices

9. Testing capacity for TFDA

10. TBS capacity

11. TIRDO capacity HPLC present but not working – software problem AAS present but yet to start working GC absent Not accredited – in the process of applying

12. GCLA capacity

13. ORGANIC CERTIFICATION Foreign based- IMO (Swiss) TANCERT – working under contract with IMO Not accredited. Its application being considered by the International Organic Accreditation Service

14. Challenges to conformity assessment in the spice industry Lacking accreditation Small industry Weak public-private partnership

15. Conclusion & recommendations Local conformity assessment capacity for EU spice standards is generally weak Lack of requisite equipments and accreditation are the major hurdles The current mkts may demand higher safety standards in future so it better to prepare. National standards not enforced due to weak linkage btn TBS and Ministry of Agric.

16. Recommendations Update and enforce national standards Standards docs should be made available to the ministry of Agriculture for dissemination to farmers. Look on the possibility of starting a national accreditation body. Testing bodies to diversify their services to include also primary products not only processed products. Consider establishment of a spices board.