IFC Launches Toolkit in Georgia to Help Companies Improve Food Safety Practices

On July 6, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, launched a toolkit to help food producers in Georgia improve their food safety management systems, thereby increasing their competitiveness and expanding their access to local and international markets.

The IFC Food Safety Toolkit provides stakeholders – including company managers and government inspectors – with guidelines on how to ensure products are safe for consumption. The IFC Georgia Food Safety Improvement Project has tailored the toolkit to the local market and made it available in the Georgian language.

“Food safety is a shared responsibility and requires collaboration among various stakeholders,” said Thomas Lubeck, IFC Regional Manager for the South Caucasus. “The IFC Food Safety Toolkit will not only help companies improve food safety practices, but it will help producers increase sales and exports, creating jobs and encouraging economic development in Georgia.”

The toolkit has been designed to provide practical guidance for businesses, consultants, regulatory authorities, non-governmental organizations, consumer organizations, and academics. It helps companies identify gaps in existing systems and develop more efficient food safety management practices. The toolkit has been successfully tested in South Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia.

The IFC Georgia Food Safety Improvement Project is supported with funds from the Ministry of Finance of Austria along with BP and its oil and gas co-venturers.

Georgia has been a member of IFC since 1995. IFC’s investments in the country to date total $605 million in 40 projects across various sectors. IFC also has Advisory Services projects in Georgia that focus on reforming the tax system to benefit small businesses, helping raise food safety standards, and strengthening the risk-management practices of banks.