The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT – As the Bahamas moves toward adopting national standards, industry stakeholders attended a one-day standardisation workshop in Grand Bahama yesterday. Organised by the Bahamas Bureau of Standards (BBS) in coordination with CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) the workshop was held at the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce.

Representatives from the private and public sectors, including the Grand Bahama Port Authority, Old Bahama Bay Resort, Freeport Container Port, BORCO, local manufacturers, the College of the Bahamas, BAIC and the Department of Environment, attended.

Fulgence St Prix, technical officer for Standards at CROSQ, said that the Bahamas would be moving to integrate completely into the regional standards process and adopt them as its own national standards. “It is important because we live in a global society and ... to get access to markets means that you must produce quality goods,” he explained.

“If you produce quality goods, those goods need to meet international standards and our standards meet international standards. The Bahamas adopting regional standards as its national standards is one way of getting market access. The other thing is that you want to be competitive and standards increase your competitiveness. So from that standpoint, it is very important.”

The standardisation workshop is to sensitise people to standards and standards development in relation to the Bahamas Bureau of Standards (BBS), which is under the Ministry of Financial Services.

Stakeholders have identified areas of interest they want to start getting standards for, including the labelling of pre-packaged foods, the grading of table eggs, the specification for poultry and poultry products and the code of hygiene practice for packaged water.

“A number of stakeholders have complained about the quality of packaged water on the market, especially when it comes to labelling because very little information is indicated,” Mr St Prix said. “They think they should have a national standard for packaged water. In terms of poultry industry, poultry farmers have indicated that they would like standards for table eggs.”

Mr St Prix said CARICM has the original standards for table eggs so the Bahamas will be moving to adopt that as the national standard. He also noted that the food hygiene and safety is also a major concern so they are looking at adopting the Code of Hygiene practice of food preparation. He indicated that the labelling pre-package foods are also a concern for every country because there is very little information given on the packages.

Dr Renee Ferguson-Bufford, acting director of BBS, said the organisation is still in its infancy. She noted that BBS’s mandate is to formulate, promulgate and facilitate the work of standards and standards development in the country on a national level.

Dr Bufford said they would be holding similar standardisation workshops in the Bahamas. The workshop in Freeport is the first held in the northern Bahamas. The next stop is Abaco, then Eleuthera.

As the National Standards Body of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, the proposed BBS has responsibilities that include organising, planning, and implementing national standardisation activities, providing customised services of information, training, and qualification on standards development, metrology, conformity assessments and quality.

The proposed BBS will constitute technical committees/working groups to commence the work plan for the adoption of regional standards as The Bahamas National standards: specifications for cement and construction products also will be included.

The Standards Bureau, which has to be established as part of the Bahamas’ commitments to membership in the rules-based trading regimes of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), is designed to both protect consumers and facilitate trade.

It will both seek to ensure that imported products meet Bahamian and international health/safety and other standards and will also provide similar certification for the country’s exports.