CE meets Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (with photo)
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Mrs Lam welcomed Mr Saito's visit to Hong Kong for the second year in a row to attend the Food Expo organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and promote Japanese food. Noting that she also visited the Food Expo last year and learnt that this year, as with last year, Japanese booths have been very well received by the general public, she said that this shows the love of Japanese gourmet food by Hong Kong people, making Hong Kong Japan's largest export market for food and agricultural products over the years. She expressed the hope that, with the commissioning of the new campus of the International Culinary Institute of the Vocational Training Council later, exchanges and co-operation in culinary training between Hong Kong and Japan could be strengthened to provide more pathways and career development opportunities for local young people.
Mrs Lam said that Hong Kong attaches great importance to food safety and that following confirmation of safety and implementation of a gatekeeping system, Hong Kong has lifted import bans on vegetables, fruits, milk, milk beverages and dried milk from four Japanese prefectures, namely Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma, with conditions, since last month. She added that the Hong Kong authorities will closely monitor the situation of the import of Japanese food and maintain communication with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan to ensure food safety and safeguard public health.
Mrs Lam said that she will visit Japan later this year and looks forward to meeting with officials of Japan and attending various events to promote exchanges and co-operation between Hong Kong and Japan in different aspects.
Ends/Friday, August 17, 2018
Issued at HKT 17:25
Issued at HKT 17:25
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