ASI holds the Food and Beverage Industry Congress

The forum seeks to strengthen a sector that generates more than $ 4,800 million annually, according to ASI data.

The Asociación Salvadoreña de Industriales (ASI) is holding the third edition of the Congreso Industrial de Alimentos y Bebidas, a forum that seeks to bring together the perspectives of the sector’s stakeholders to strengthen its growth. The activity takes place this May 13 and 14. 

In this sense, the president of the ASI, Jorge Arriaza, stressed that the food and beverage industry has a weight of 38% of the industrial gross domestic product (GDP), and generates more than $ 4,800 million annually, so its growth detonates in the total economic dynamics of the country.

He also highlights its role as a generator of jobs, “we have 32,000 jobs in this sector that represent 17.5% of the industry’s employment, and it is a qualified employment that is being trained to develop a human capital of high technological level”.

With this in mind, the executive highlighted that the congress addresses the new sustainable challenges in the food and beverage industry, advances in innovation and logistics, and sustainability and food, among other topics of importance for companies.

Among the topics to be addressed are: the renewal of the sanitary registration, the update of nutritional labeling, food safety as a basis for economic growth, the metrology regulation and international system of units, and the entry into operation of the Superintendence of Sanitary Regulation scheduled for next August.

Regarding this last point, the head of the National Directorate of Medicines (DNM), Noel García, highlighted that the creation of the new superintendence will work hand in hand with the industry.

“As Superintendence of Health Regulation, in due course, we will guarantee not only the safety, quality, and efficacy of all the products that we are going to regulate since the industry has the same objective: to guarantee the health of the population in its broadest sense,” he said.

The new superintendence, ratified by the Legislative Assembly in November 2023, transforms the functions of the DNM, which now absorbs the regulation of food and beverages, in addition to pharmaceuticals, and will become operational in August this year.

Source: Diario El Salvador