We welcome you to our refreshed website with a revised look and feel! Whilst this is currently a 'work in progress' there were a number of important announcements, documents and bulletins that could wait no longer. Bear with us as we continue with the website refreshment project. Meantime, we hope these latest uploads will be informative and useful and that you will attend some of the upcoming events.
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Statutory Instrument 157 of 2018 (Food, Feed, Food and Feed Additives md Seed) (Imports, Export and Transit) Regulations, 2018

This SI makes it a legal requirement for companies (and individuals) involved in the importation, exportation, and transportation into or through Zimbabwe of any good of a biological nature (food, feeds, additives to food/feeds, livestock, eggs etc) to:

(a)        Register with NBA for an annual fee of $500 per company;

(b)        Obtain an import/export/transit permit for each commodity at a fee ranging from $30 to $80, depending on volume and valid for only 3months;

(c)        Subject cargo for inspection by NBA at a fee of $20 per truck plus transport cost for NBA inspectors to travel to and from depot;

(d)        Obtain from NBA an appropriate Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) declaration/certification of each consignment a fee of $250 per consignment; and

(e)        For consignments under 500kgs presumed to be for personal non-commercial purposes, an NBA permit is required and obtainable for a fee of $10 to $20, depending on its size.

 

Statutory Instrument 159 of 2018 (Genetically Modified Food and Feed Labelling)

This is a far-reaching SI, compelling food manufacturers to appropriately LABEL the Genetically Engineered (GE) status of foods. According to this SI, all foodstuffs on the supermarket shelf will carry a label declaring whether it is GMO-free or contains some GMOs.  The Act states that the GMO labelling shall "apply to all food or feed irrespective of threshold of the content of genetically modified material".  The Instrument specifically excludes:

(a)        Products from animals (whether or not) fed with feed produced through genetic modification or containing genetically modified organisms;

(b)        Medical products for human and veterinary use; and

(c)        Highly refined food, where the effect of the refining process is to remove novel DNA or novel protein.

 

The Act also makes it very explicit that "these regulations are in addition to any labelling regulations made in terms of the Food and Food Standards Act (Chapter 15:041) and the Fertilisers, Farm Feeds and Remedies Act (Chapter 18:121).

 

Statutory Instrument 160 of 2018 NBA (Agricultural Biotechnology Products Regulation):

This SI closely reflects the stated primary objectives of the National Biotechnology Act. The SI sets up the modalities for:

(a)        Regulating domestic trials and commercial release of biofertilisers, biopesticides, biostimulants and the setting up of a technical committee for that purpose; and

(b)        Establishes the processes and procedures for application to import, export, commercialise or carry out trial releases of biofertilisers, biopesticides, biostimulants which now therefore renders illegal any trading or usage of such products without registration and certification by NBA.