Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Agricultural Health

Peru and Colombia begin preparations to comply with new requirements for exporting food to the U. S.

Tiempo de lectura: 3 mins.

More than 50 professionals were trained in complying with FSMA standards, which regulate the export of processed food to the United States. The participants will in turn share their knowledge with other actors in the sector.  

The program has already trained 204 professionals in the public, private, and academic sectors in 16 countries of the Americas.

San Jose, 8 June 2017 (IICA). In order to ensure safe food for human consumption, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided training to 59 professionals in Peru and Colombia to comply with new export requirements for processed food established by the United States government.

Those trained are qualified to instruct exporters, producers, educators, and staff members in preventive controls for human food. In addition, the new trainers have pledged to share their knowledge and disseminate information concerning the new standards in the sector.

“Training in topics such as this is fundamental for the export sector in the countries; we would like to ensure that the information is flowing, and we also hope to dispel any doubts that could arise from the process”, stated Ana Marisa Cordero, Specialist in Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) at IICA.   

For Cordero, this type of initiative achieves the objective of providing technical assistance and strengthening capabilities in order to comply with the regulations established by the United States, and at the same time, provide the means to educate trainers at a minimal cost.

The training programs are part of the Food Safety and Agricultural Sustainability Training (FAST) project, implemented by IICA and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The program seeks to strengthen technical capacity in Central America, South America and the Caribbean in order to support the export of food to the United States, as well as foster compliance with the regulations of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The program has already trained 204 professionals in the public, private, and academic sectors in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Haiti, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, and Colombia.

Paraguay will soon participate in the initiative with a workshop in September. As of the second half of the year, a new capacity-building project geared toward facilitating compliance with the regulations on fresh produce will start in the coming months. s

 

More information:

Ana Marisa Cordero, Specialist in Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) at IICA.

ana.cordero@iica.int

 

Picture gallery

Share

Related news​

San José, Costa Rica

September 19, 2025

The main stakeholders in the technological transformation of agriculture in the Americas return to IICA for the Fourth Digital Agriculture Week

120 leaders from 20 countries will gather from September 22 to 25 at IICA headquarters.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Asunción, Paraguay

September 16, 2025

Nidia González, who champions the empowerment of women farmers in Paraguay and strives to raise living standards in her community, has now been recognized as an IICA Leader of Rurality of the Americas 

Nidia is President of the Comité de Santo Domingo, a group that seeks to improve the income and standard of living of the entire community.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins

Madrid, España

September 16, 2025

The IICA Director General, during a working visit to Spain, met with the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas; visited the Spanish Congress and was honored by Universidad de Córdoba

In his meeting with Planas, Otero reflected on the close collaboration with Spain and characterized the Institute’s technical cooperation as systemic, efficient and collaborative, providing benefits to more than ten million farmers and actively undertaking 358 projects to enhance food security and rural development.

Tiempo de lectura: 3mins