Agriculture ministry guarantees safety of GAP farm products

Bangkok, Oct 23 – The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives confirms that farm products certified for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) are safe and it is seriously controlling their quality at production and distribution sources. Uthai Noppakoonwong, deputy director-general of the Department of Agriculture, said his department checked toxic contamination with 4,518 samples of 196 vegetables collected from nationwide sources from October 2016 to July 2017. The tests covered samples from 1,608 GAP-certified plantations, 2,904 plantations that are undergoing the process of GAP certification, and six organic farms. The checks found that 92.2% of GAP-certified plantations met standard, 93.6% of plantations pending GAP certification passed the tests and all the six tested organic farms were free of toxic contamination. Mr Uthai said his department would issue warnings to the owners of the plantations that did not meet standard and urged for the improvement of their production processes. The department would also recommend solutions. If repeated checks find they remain substandard, their certificates will be suspended, he said. (TNA)