Under the provisions of the Mongolian Food Safety Law 2012, all involved in the primary production of agricultural raw materials must implement Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Hygiene Practices. However, the government has not formulated and adopted a national GAP scheme, and there is no common understanding of GAP provisions among producers, consumers, the government, and NGOs.

The APO in partnership with the Mongolian Productivity Organization and Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, Government of Mongolia, organized a national conference-cum-workshop on Enhancing GAP Implementation in the Mongolian Agriculture Sector in Ulaanbaatar, 15–17 January, to train producers and build the capacity of key stakeholders in GAP for fruit and vegetables. It helped reach a consensus among stakeholders on the adoption of GAP scheme standards.

Eighty participants representing producers and family farmers, government officers including those in local government units and the National Agency for Standardization and Metrology, managers of food-processing companies, the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and others in charge of GAP and organic agriculture as well as a resource person from the ROK attended. The project was a follow-up to the APO Training of Trainers in the GLOBALGAP Standard for Greater Market Access held in Pakistan in 2016 and Self-learning e-Course on GAP offered in 2017–2018.

The conference allowed participants to learn from the experiences of other organizations and their achievements in the development of sustainable agriculture worldwide. As well as explaining the principles of product safety and risk assessment for primary agricultural production, the basic technical requirements for introducing GAP in farming and livestock operations were clarified. Participants also learned how to harmonize organic agricultural production standards with GAP schemes.

Photos: Mongolian Productivity Organization