The Saudi Food & Drug Authority (SFDA) has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry for Primary Industries of New Zealand (MPI) in order to verify New Zealand's food standards with Saudi food standards.
The memorandum was signed by SFDA CEO Dr. Hisham bin Saad Al-Jadhey, and the Ambassador of New Zealand to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia -on behalf of the MPI- Mr. James Munro
The purpose of this MoC is to develop new health measures for New Zealand food exports to the Kingdom, exchange of technical information, support, food safety initiatives
Food Sanitary measures refers to "the set of governmental and self-regulatory health systems, that must be met throughout the food chain" in order to guarantee the safety of food exports for Saudi consumer consumption, furthermore eliminating any type of disease that might be transported to Saudi Arabia
The new measures includes a set of required government health regulatory systems for food processing facilities that both producers and exporters apply to throughout the entire food chain, certificates and relevant shipment documents, including electronic systems for the exchange of those certificates and documents.
It is to be noted that the amount of food imported from New Zealand exceeds 136 million kg, foremost among which is milk, meat, and other food varieties.