On Monday, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Deputy State Secretary for International Relations, Katalin Tóth, received Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Forestry Phouang Parisak Pravongviengkham of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos.

The aim of the meeting was to enable the negotiating partners to review and assess traditional Hungarian-Laotian cooperation in agriculture and other partnership relations.

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The Laotian party indicated that he is fully aware that one of the guarantees of the high level of Hungarian agricultural exports is the Hungarian food safety system, which is recognised as being among the international front runners in the field. The Laotian Deputy Minister plans to establish a similar system, as a result of which the parties feel that there are important cooperation opportunities available within the fields of knowledge transfer and the development of human resources.

Deputy State Secretary Katalin Tóth emphasised that Hungary and Laos have a traditionally good relationship within the field of agriculture and the food industry. She noted that Hungarian products, which are of excellent quality, are highly processed and represent a significant added value, are highly sought after all over the world, adding that our food chain supervision system ensures that food can be traced, as well as guaranteeing the safety of consumers. She also drew her negotiating partner’s attention to the fact that preserving the GMO-free status of Hungarian agricultural production is a key factor that gives Hungary a serious positional advantage on world export markets.

Ms. Tóth also pointed out that various research institutes and background institutions (e.g. the Research Institute for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Irrigation, the Centre for Agricultural Research and the National Food Chain Safety Office) are also showing active interest in Laotian business opportunities. The Deputy State Secretary confirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture is prepared to provide all possible assistance to Laos within the fields requested.

(Ministry of Agriculture)