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During the presentation of the 2024 report, Mr. Otar Shamugia, summarized the measures taken in the food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary areas.
According to the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, the scale and efficiency of state control in food safety have increased significantly.
"The scale of the control has increased by 50% over the past five years, while the rate of detected violations has fallen from 17 to 12% in the same period, indicating that the situation in food safety is improving.
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The National Food Agency has successfully completed all phases of the international audit on the "State control of food safety’’, and received the international standard quality management system certificate ISO 9001, confirming the high level of quality management systems, Mr Otar Shamugia stated.
According to the Minister, the National Food Agency performs up to 6 million veterinary manipulations each year to protect animal health, prevent the spread of various diseases, and avoid /reduce economic losses for farmers, including free vaccination of animals against seven types of diseases.
''We have significantly tightened the control of facilities selling pesticides and agrochemicals to prevent the placement of low-quality plant protection products on the market. During 2023, 600 objects were inspected, detecting only 35 violations. Strict controls will continue in 2024 to protect farmers from using low-quality pesticides and agrochemicals,'' noted Mr. Shamugia.
During his remarks, the Minister stressed that laboratory capacity is expanding nationwide, and international research methods are widely applied.
 In 2023, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture laboratory received the status of a national reference laboratory.
The laboratory continues developing new research techniques to ensure timely diagnosis and promote the production of healthy products. This year, we plan to adopt more than 40 new research methods, with 19 focusing on fish diseases.