The objective of the workshop was to exchange national experiences and compare various government policies and private sector strategies currently in place in South Asian countries with regard to: (a) improving market access of food and food processing industries on environmental and health grounds (i.e. improving standards and testing to conform to environmental and health standards in export markets); and (b) improving environmental sustainability of food and processed food production.

The workshop provided recommendations for: (a) government policy to improve (i) export competitiveness of SMEs in the food and food processing industry on the basis of conformity with international environmental/health standards and (ii) to improve environmental sustainability of food and processed food production, including importation of intermediate and input products for this industry; (b) private sector organizations and SMEs in these two areas (reference could be made in this context to the role of public-private partnerships); (c) regional cooperation mechanisms and modalities in these two areas; and (d) international agencies like ESCAP to improve technical assistance in these areas.