ON Tuesday, October 24, 2023, His Excellency Peter Chia-Yen Chen, Taiwan’s Ambassador to Saint Lucia, met with Hon. Alfred Prospere, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development for a special briefing on an important project.
At that meeting, Mr. Hugo Lo, Agriculture Specialist at the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM), presented the results of the HPLC course which was held at the National Agricultural Diagnostic Facility (NADF) in September 2023. Mr. Lo also made recommendations regarding food nutrition labeling and other areas in which the NADF can improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
In response to a request from Mr. Barrymore Felicien, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, the TTM conducted eight advanced chemical analysis training sessions at NADF in which six people participated.
The course included HPLC principles, analytical methods, practical operations, establishment of unfamiliar analyses, etc., as well as AAS principles and analytical methods. Through the training, participants learned how to detect pesticide residue of food items.
“We are so glad that we will be able to respond to the Ministry of Agriculture’s request to do this workshop, trying to use the existing equipment to detect pesticides residue,” said Ambassador Chen. “I think this workshop is really timely and also needed for promoting agriculture and food security and food safety.”
Hon. Prospere said he was pleased with the assistance being provided in the agricultural sector, especially as food security continues to be a major concern for his Ministry and the country at large.
“This is very critical for us in terms of food security because our agro-processors and other persons who are involved in the sector,” he said. “There is importance in labeling and getting information in terms of the nutritional value of products is critical. More importantly, food safety standards must be priority number one.”
The briefing was held in the conference room of the Ministry of Agriculture.