Pesticide certification for imported

Certificates should indicate the permitted percentage of pesticide content in consignments entering Oman

Vegetables and fruit importers will have to submit a certificate indicating the maximum allowed percentage of pesticide content in all the consignments that enter Oman starting from May 21, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The rule was issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in a circular sent to all agricultural quarantine departments at the nation’s border posts.

“Importers of food crops have to submit approved certificates from accredited departments of the exporting countries. Food products without the certificate will be rejected and not allowed to enter the country,” said the circular.

Importers also asked to comply safety standards. have with

Labelling mandatory

been food

Earlier this month, Muscat Municipality had directed all local farms to provide labels of their farms on all the vegetables and fruit sold in Oman. “It will then be easy to trace them if any problem arises,” said Muscat Municipality.

Starting May 15, the United Arab Emirates banned certain Omani vegetables and fruit after discovering some of the products exceeded the maximum residue limits (MRL) of pesticides.

Pesticide levels in imported melons, watercress and carrots from Oman were found to be above the allowable limits.

The ban has resulted in losses of thousands of riyals for Omani fruit and vegetable vendors.

Dr Fuad Al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, said earlier that his ministry was dealing with the parties found to be in violation of the pesticide limits.

He said monitoring of such large exports was very challenging. “We export hundreds of tonnes of food products to the UAE on a daily basis. Such mistakes are likely to happen despite the fact that we always inspect products before exporting them,” the minister added.

“It is the social responsibility of Omanis to supervise the functioning of their farms, but many of them have entrusted their farms to expats,” he said.

The minister said that there are more than 166,000 farms nationwide.

“It’s difficult to monitor all these farms, but we conduct random inspections. Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said that it had increased its food inspections and that had helped them crack down on some culprits,” he added.

“More than 1,600 samples taken from commercial farms nationwide were tested and we found that 98 per cent of the samples conform to internationally permissible limits of pesticides,” the ministry said in a statement.