Para español, lea debajo. In 2018, Mexico and Denmark signed an agreement on a strategic sector cooperation (SSC-cooperation) within Food and Agriculture. In 2020, the SSC-cooperation was further strengthened as a joint SSC-project was initiated between the relevant Mexican and Danish authorities to focus on exotic diseases, anti-microbial resistance, food safety and handling of data and information in relation to this. From Mexico, the authority is El Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad de Agroalimentaria (SENASICA) and from Denmark, the authority is the Danish Food and Veterinary Administration (DVFA).
Of actual interest is the exotic disease, African Swine Fever (ASF), which is a global challenge and has a very high risk for the pig production as well as considerable socio-economic implications. Mexico and Denmark are both important pig-producing nations and therefore have many experiences and expertise to share with each other in order to prevent an outbreak. Both Mexico and Denmark have never before had an outbreak of ASF. However, both countries have neighbors with current outbreaks. Just within the last month, the disease was identified in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti, as well as in Germany in Europe.
This week, from the 20 – 25 of September in Mexico City, the Danish Embassy together with SENASICA and DVFA hosted the final out of six workshops over the last two years in the track of exotic diseases and ASF. This week’s workshop has been carried out during the same week as the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, which highlights the need for international cooperation and knowledge sharing in order to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, it was the first workshop to take place in person and the first workshop with physical visits from Denmark. The workshop had 35 people participating physically in Mexico City as well as another 56 online participants from all over Mexico. During the week, there has been several presentations from many important speakers, such as:
• Dr. Juan Gay Gutierrez, Senior Director SENASICA
• Dr. Fernando Rivera, Director of Import and Export at SENASICA
• Ing. Rene Hernandez Ruiz, Director of the International Office for International Projects
• Dr. Manjarrez, private sector on compensation of farmers
• Dr. Gloria Morgado and Dr. Alverto Prado, SENASICA
• Dr. Camilla Brasch Andersen, Vice-CVO, DVFA
• Dr. Sten Mortensen, Veterinary R&D Manager, DVFA
• Dr. Fransisco Fernando Calvo Artavia, Veterinary Expert, DVFA
• Mr. Thorkild Bastholm, Chief Consultant IT Applications, DVFA
• Dr. Charlotte Thøgersen, Veterinary officer, DVFA
• M.Sc. Michelle Sunding, expert, DVFA
Besides the workshop, there have been several bilateral meetings between the Danish Embassy, the DVFA, SENASICA and the Organization of Mexican Pig Producers, OPORMEX, in order to strengthen the strategic cooperation between Denmark and Mexico within food and agriculture. A bilateral meeting also took place at SENESICA’s headquarters in Condesa, Mexico City, with attendance from the Director of SENASICA, Francisco Javier Trujillo Arriaga.
At the end of October 2021, there will be a visit to Denmark from Mexico to see and experience the Danish learnings and cross-border control on the prevention of ASF in Denmark. Both the SENASICA and the private sector will participate in this visit with participants from the DVFA and the Danish Embassy in Mexico.
The next steps in the project is a new track starting up at the end of this year on the important topic of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). AMR is a serious threat to human and animal health in the world and The World Health Organisation has AMR as one of their top priorities for the coming years. We will start this track with a visit from Denmark to Mexico with a delegation of experts in November 2021 (expected).
If you have any questions regarding the SSC-cooperation between Denmark and Mexico on Food and Agriculture, please contact Sector Advisor Mads Sejersen Vinther on e-mail, [email protected].
