The Gambia Standards Bureau (TGSB), whose mandate includes ensuring standards in both imported and local products in partnership with the Ecosystem-based Adaptation Project (EBA Project), recently convened a forum to devise means and ways of standardising three food products namely: Baobab, Honey, and Maringo to be fit for international standards and sales.
The event was held on Friday at the Governor’s Office in Brikama.
Moriba Touray, Business Development Officer EBA Project, reminded that the country is blessed with food products that ‘if standardised could help elevate the market and income.’
“We want to be able to produce and consume our own natural home-made food, we want to see our own products in the supermarket instead of them being filled with imported food items, this way we can empower ourselves and boost our country’s economy.” he said.
Marie Mendy, Principal Conformity Assessment Officer The Gambia Standards Bureau, said those mentioned products are widely used in the country, but they can’t go beyond the country to international market because it is not standardised.
“The products normally when they reach the international markets, they are usually rejected or given for animal consumption. This is because they did not go through processes to fit the market,” she said.
Haruna Badjie, Regional Social Welfare at the Governor’s Office, said this will not only promote foreign exchange, but also create employment and the know-how, to the people involved in such processing.