Abu Dhabi: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of UAE, Minister of the Presidential Court, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), has issued Resolution No. 2 – 2022 to promote the quality of agriculture and food facilities by strengthening the emirate’s agricultural legislative system.
With the new resolution, ADAFSA aims to support the sustainability of agriculture, promote biosecurity, and reduce improper farming and livestock practices.
The resolution further reflects ADAFSA’s achievements in governing standards and procedures as well as the administration of penalties against violators, to achieve the maximum compliance rates for its legislation.
Implementing administrative penalties on food and agriculture facilities will enable ADAFSA to ensure the unified treatment to all violating categories. Furthermore, penalties are graduated according to the risks of the violations, which reflects the balance philosophy between the public interest and the interests of the facilities.
Mr. Saeed Al Bahri Al Ameri, Director General of ADAFSA, shared.
Mr. Al Ameri expressed his gratitude to Sheikh Mansour for his support towards the authority’s efforts in developing a sustainable agricultural sector and strengthening the biosecurity system in Abu Dhabi.
According to the statements, “The penalty for placing facilities under financial, administrative, and technical supervision applies if any facility fails to manage production and trading operations in a way that does not harm food safety, biosecurity, food security, or agricultural sustainability.”
The penalty for eliminating or suspending the licence of the facility applies if it is unable to manage production and trading operations in a manner that does not constitute harm to food safety, biosecurity, food security, or agricultural sustainability within one year of the date of the establishment’s activity and after the penalty of placing the facility under supervision or the penalty of licence suspension.
Finally, the penalty for temporarily or permanently closing the facility is applied if one or more violations have been noted, in the same category or another, after passing through previous administrative penalties, such as recording a violation that poses a serious health and safety offence and not removing its effects immediately, recording a confirmed poisoning case, or committing a high-risk violation or violations.