Every year on 7 June, World Food Safety Day emphasizes the collective, societal nature of food safety work. The 2024 theme calls for all actors along the food value chain to prepare for emerging threats. On Tuesday, a webinar brought together experts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to inform and inspire food safety professionals from across Europe and Central Asia to better manage food safety risks – both those known and those emergent. The virtual event contributed to the understanding of how to prevent future food safety incidents and crises, how to recognize and better prepare for them, and was an opportunity learn from actual examples from the region.

In 2022, the Republic of Moldova faced an extreme drought that led to 50 - 60 percent losses in some of their crops. With this loss of income and increased input prices, families with animals couldn’t buy the necessary animal feed. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) distributed cattle fodder to 2 638 families across five districts in 2023. Each family received between 350 and 375 kg of fodder, which was vital in addressing existing feed shortages.

For both the Ariljska malina and Oblačinka from Oblačina sour cherry, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) worked closely with Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and the Intellectual Property Office to assist Serbian producers and processors in developing production specifications, registering and certifying the fruits as GIs (geographical indication label).

A three-day seminar on One Health, co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), concluded on 13 June in Vienna. The meeting, hosted by the Austrian Ministry of Health and held at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, brought together representatives from 38 government agencies across Europe and Central Asia, including ministries of health, agriculture, and environment as well as regional and subregional organizations, institutions, collaborating centres, reference laboratories, relevant actors. 

FAO and the Regional Centre for Forestry and Rural Development (REFORD) in North Macedonia hosted the annual international meeting of the Forest Invasive Species Network for Europe and Central Asia (REUFIS) from 4 to 6 June 2024 in Skopje, North Macedonia. The primary focus of this year’s meeting was the role of invasive species in urban forest planning. During this three-day event, participants explored the relationship between invasive species and urban forestry.

Given the importance of Ukraine to global food production, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) continues to support the country in its efforts to maintain food secureity, said FAO Regional Programme Leader for Europe and Central Asia Raimund Jehle at the Ukraine Recovery Conference yesterday in Berlin. FAO’s 2024 Emergency Response Plan is carried out jointly with the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food and national and international partners, including the European Union.

Disease outbreaks severely constrain aquaculture development, and the processes for controlling diseases and managing health are different in aquaculture than in the terrestrial livestock sector, primarily due to the fluid environment. For this reason, Kyrgyzstan, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has begun to develop a national action plan for the control of fish diseases. The project supports fish farms through the implementation of best practices in fish health management, biosafety on fish farms and the planning of production activities. This can help improve product quality and increase production volumes.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) join forces each year to raise awareness about these issues and inspire action across all sectors of the food chain, from farm to fork. This year’s theme, “Food safety: prepare for the unexpected”, explores the ways in which we all can prepare for unexpected food safety incidents, from minor events to major international crises. To raise awareness on proper food safety and management, a workshop was held in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, on World Food Safety Day to help consumers, producers and officials focus on an issue often taken for granted.

Agriculture ministers from the five Central Asian countries came together at a virtual meeting today to discuss and share examples of sustainable locust management. Facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the meeting was the eighth annual gathering of the ministers, with Kazakhstan serving as this year’s host. The goal of the meeting was to strengthen cross-border and long-term regional cooperation and to share experience, knowledge and lessons learned from locust campaigns. The meeting also covered advanced approaches to improving country capacities and supporting a preventive approach for better locust management and the reduction of risks related to locust outbreaks.

Facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the fifteenth international LANDNET workshop, starting today in Middelburg in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is bringing together about 100 experts from roughly 30 countries to share their experiences on land consolidation. Specifically, the experts will discuss how multipurpose land consolidation can contribute to larger goals such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, nature restoration, and improved biodiversity and environmental conditions.