Yaadga: As part of its quality control and promotion activities, the Burkinabe Agency for Standardization of Metrology and Quality (ABNORM) organized an information and awareness seminar on Thursday, July 2, for the benefit of socio-economic actors in the Yaadga region, AIB observed.

According to Burkina Information Agency, this seminar highlighted the importance of product certification and brought together around sixty managers of agri-food processing units, pre-packaged water production, service stations, and professionals from the agri-food sector.

The representative of the Director General of the agency, Ginette Goungounga, stated that the objective of the seminar is to contribute to the improvement of the quality and safety of food and agri-food products and at the same time strengthen the knowledge of actors in the Yaadga region on the standards applicable to products and the procedures for certification.

'Nowadays, simply producing is no longer enough; we must produce according to recognized quality, health, and safety requirements in order to guarantee safe and compliant products for our people. To do this, we must prepare our companies to conquer national, sub-regional, and international markets,' said the representative of the head of the agency.

The expert in conformity assessment of certification systems, Moussa Sourabie, and the head of the assistance and advice service, Acha Zongo, both from ABNORM, have, through their communication, equipped the targeted socio-economic actors.

The discussions and exchanges during the seminar focused on the missions, responsibilities, and services of ABNORM. They covered topics such as what a standard is, its requirements, how to develop it, existing standards, and the agency's contribution to standardization at the national and international levels. Certification was also addressed during the seminar to inform participants about the product certification process, its advantages, and the opportunities it offers for penetrating national, sub-regional, and international markets.

"We, as private sector actors, were eagerly awaiting this ABNORM seminar in our region because many do not know the agency and its responsibilities and do not know the concrete benefits of standardization and the steps involved in product certification," said Binta Savadogo, promoter of a processing unit.