Report on Capacity Building of the Edible Oil/Ghee Mills exporting to Afghanistan, & Traders meeting on fortification of Edible Oil/Ghee

Transcription

1 Report on Capacity Building of the Edible Oil/Ghee Mills exporting to Afghanistan, & Traders meeting on fortification of Edible Oil/Ghee Background: A proven long-term strategy for addressing micronutrient deficiencies and improving health outcomes is food fortification. The primary source of food energy intake in the region is wheat flour, most of which is not fortified. Fortification of flour and cooking oils can improve dietary intake of essential vitamins and minerals. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) and various stakeholders in Pakistan, including the provincial Government of Punjab has recognized this. In Afghanistan, the draft National Public Nutrition Policy and Strategy ( ) mentions the importance of fortifying edible oils and wheat flour and specifically mentions that, efforts are underway towards passage of legislation to require importation of only fortified industrial flour that meets the national fortification standards, and efforts are on-going to establish mandatory standards for the fortification of industrially produced vegetable oil and ghee with vitamins A and D. Passage of legislation requiring imports of imported vegetable oil and ghee, based on national standards, is expected. In Pakistan, mandatory regulations for edible oils have been in existence since the 1960 s. With support from GAIN, the Punjab Food Authority recently revised the wheat flour standard, in line with WHO guidelines (Sodium Iron EDTA 20mg/kg, and Folic Acid 1.3 mg/kg), and successfully advocated for mandatory legislation. However, a regulatory monitoring system, to include enforcement, is not yet in place. In the rest of the country, wheat flour fortification is voluntary. Under the USAID funded Regional Fortification in the Central Asian Republics (CAR) and Afghanistan Project, a study was conducted on trade flow of analysis of wheat, wheat flour and vegetable oil and ghee in the region. This study revealed that Afghanistan is a net importer of grain with 600,000 MT imported in 2013 for a total consumption of 5.8m MT. Afghanistan is also a net importer of wheat flour with 1.0 MT imported in 2013 for a total consumption of 4.4m MT. Kazakhstan is by far the major wheat flour exporter in the region, along with Pakistan; Afghanistan mainly imports from Pakistan (60%) and Kazakhstan (40%)1. Furthermore, Pakistan is by far the major edible oil producer in the region; most of the edible oil trade in the region is between Pakistan and Afghanistan. 1 Altai Consulting. Afghanistan/Central Asia Food Fortification Program. Trade Flow Analysis (Wheat Grain, Wheat Flour and Edible Oils). Draft, Sept 2015

2 Capacity Building of the Edible Oil/Ghee Mills exporting to Afghanistan 15 th November 2017 GAIN Pakistan engaged Edible Oil & Ghee mills in KPK & Baluchistan Provinces exporting produce to Afghanistan. The objective of this engagement was to strengthen the capacity of the mills in improving the quality of fortification at the point of production and facilitating the export of quality fortified Ghee/edible from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The areas of collaboration included a) Developing the capacity of the Partner exporting edible oil & ghee to Afghanistan and train its employees. The target mill employees to be trained will include the owner/representative and technical staff of the Partner. The training will be on Quality Assurance and Quality Control following the QA/QC manual published by DFID/FFP project; b) Improving the fortification qualitative testing capacity by the provision of Rapid Test Kit to the partner oil exporting mill and to be used by the mills production staff during the production process. For an effective engagement GAIN provided technical assistance for training plan development and extracting relevant material from FFP Training Manual for Edible Oil & Ghee, QA/QC capacity building of the mill staff. The mills in turn provided relevant data & reports (on production & exports) as and when requested by GAIN, facilitate quality assurance system for fortified edible oil/ghee including staff capacity building by participating in QA/QC capacity building activities, nominate one staff member as focal point for this Project; and facilitate the bridging role between industry, GAIN and other stakeholders. Training Plan: The Training was a one day event in which 5 mills will participate with 3 staff from each mill, beside the mill staff the Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), Nuclear Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA), National Fortification Alliance (NFA) and other stake holders were also invited. Training was conducted by Dr Aurengzeb Khattak, and Dr Nazir from NIFSAT Training Tool: The training was conducted through the Master Trainers trained by FFP on their Training Manual Annex-I; an extracted and translated version in Urdu language was used to train the participants. Following is the training plan for the one day training: Training Name Technical Assistance Resource Facility TRAINING PLAN Training on EDIBLE OIL/GHEE FORTIFICATION & QC PROCESSES GAIN FFP Master Trainer on Oil/Ghee Fortification

3 Date and Time 15 th November 2017 Training Objectives: Training Flow: Time (minutes) 09:00 10:30 Objective of the training is to build the capacity & awareness of the edible oil/ghee mills on the fortification Training will start with introduction, importance of fortification, regulatory framework, premix procurement storage and handling, and Quality Assurance and Quality Control for Fortification Session Plan Section - Pre Test 10:30 10:45 Tea Break 10:45 13:00 - Introduction and Background - Micronutrient Malnutrition in Pakistan - The Effects of Vitamin A&D Deficiency on Human Health - Food Fortification An Effective Strategy to combat Micronutrient Malnutrition - Considerations for Selection of Food Vehicles to Deliver Micronutrients - Regulatory Framework for Edible Oil/Ghee Fortification in Pakistan - Premix for Fortification of Edible Oil/Ghee - Procurement of Premix - Storage and Handling of Premix - Requirement and calibration of Equipment - Fortification Processes for Edible Oil/Ghee (both Inline and batch processes) - Premix Addition Rate (in-line and batch process) - Dilution of Premix - Group Work 13:00 14:00 Lunch and Prayer Break 14:00 16:30 - Stability of Vitamin A&D in Edible Oil/Ghee - Safety and Toxicity Considerations - Record Keeping and stock control for Premix - Storage and distribution of the fortified Edible Oil and Ghee - Common Mistakes in Oil/Ghee Fortification - Quality Assurance and Quality Control for Fortification - Importance of QA/QC System in Edible Oil/Ghee Fortification

4 16:30 17:00 - Sampling Methodology (including packaging and transportation of samples) - General Quality Parameters of Importance in Fortification - Frequently Asked Questions and Answers - Post Test - Distribution of Certificates Questions raised during the Training: 1. What are the supply chain methods, how it should be delivered to the consumers- Storage stability? If the packaging is done in tins or in any opaque material then there are 90% chances of not losing the vitamin A. 2. Why the Europe is not deficient of Vitamin-A? In Europe they follow balance diet but they are quite far from fiber diet than the Asians. 3. How the Soybean oil fortification can be done persons are facing problem in detection? 4. What is the Toxicity of Vitamin A, and Hyper consumption of vitamin A in single dose or a multiple dose. 5. Process elaboration of Premixer calibrations in detail? 6. Dilution of Premix Is it mandatory to dilute 50 fold premix of vitamin A? 7. Does the export oil has similar composition in all respect as we are consuming in Pakistan; is there any variation? 8. Is the PSQCA and Afghanistan s food legislation Body are in coordination/harmony to fortify oil as per codex almentarious guidelines (International rules)? (In couple of weeks the meeting is scheduled to resolve the concerned issues)

5 Traders meeting on fortification of Edible Oil/Ghee-16 th November 2017 The Cross Border Trade Meeting on Fortified Edible Oils (Peshawar, November 2017) was held with an aim to facilitate and accelerate exports of adequately fortified foods wheat flour and edible oil/ghee from Pakistan to Afghanistan through engagement, dialogue, negotiations and knowledge exchange. The meeting targeted producers, exporters, traders, government and other bodies regulating production, import and export of flour and edible oil/ghee in both countries. Following were the objectives of the meeting: Facilitating engagement, dialogue and negotiations among key stakeholders involved in production, regulation, marketing and trade of edible oil/ghee between the two countries, in order to stimulate exports of fortified edible oil/ghee to Afghanistan. Enhancing knowledge-sharing between the two countries on regulations, trade procedures, requirements, and market preferences among key trade partners. To identifying and agree upon practical measures for quality assurance/control of exported foods, and on specifications for packaging, labelling and logo design to meet Afghan market demand and consumer preferences. Methodology: The meeting included presentations and discussions, as well as deliberations by a working group of exporters and traders edible oil/ghee from both countries. The more than 80 participants Participants: Industry representatives from both countries Pakistan s international development sector (DFID, MI, SUN Business Network). The Meeting proceedings: Detailed sessions were held on Progress on Standards and fortification quality improvement, Sharing the developments from Afghanistan side, Discussion on standards and labelling requirements from Afghanistan & QA/QC Mechanisms, discussion on current obstacles and constraints preventing Pakistani producers to produce and export Afghanistan, discussion on ways and means to improve export and import predictability from Afghani importers, Q&A sessions with ACCI Representative/ Traders Representative & representative of Pakistani Producers

6 List of Annexures: Annex I FFP Training Manual Annex II Fortification of edible oil and Ghee Annex III planning Slide Annex IV QA-QC of vitamin A & D Fortification of oil Annex V QAQC Training- GAIN- Objectives of the Session Annex VI QAQC Training- GAIN Annex VII GAIN Support to the Industry - Oil & Ghee Fortification & Quality Control Annex VII Why Fortify