Tunisia’s new government is taking steps to improve grain quality, and the U.S. Grains Council is helping with the process under a five-year agreement with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture.

Prior to its revolution, Tunisia had no regulations for monitoring the quality of imported grain, and poultry industry representatives were reporting instances of corn shipments containing aflatoxin at more than 20 parts per billion.

Now Tunisia’s post-revolution government has responded to the economic impact that grain quality can have by establishing the Tunisian Grain Inspection Authority and signing the cooperation agreement, under which the Council will work on developing a Tunisian Central Laboratory of Animal Feed.

Most recently, the Council brought two top officials from the new central laboratory to the U.S. for meetings with their counterparts at USDA’s Federal Grain Inspection Service and to identify the equipment needed for their lab.

“As with other markets like Egypt, helping the Tunisians with grain quality issues can help U.S. exports compete against lower-priced, off-quality grain and give Tunisian end-users more confidence that imported grain meets their quality needs,� explained Tom Sleight, USGC vice president of operations, who met with the group.

“The team could not believe how everything was organized and the knowledge they gained,� said Nabil “Bill� Azmy, the retired USDA Federal Grain Inspection Service official who traveled with the group.

While in Kansas City, the team visited the FGIS headquarters laboratory to see how grain sampling is done and how corn and sorghum samples are prepared and tested.  They were also briefed on how quality control charts are used and on the importance of reference labs.

In New Orleans, team members visited an export elevator and were present for a ship hold inspection and official sampling.

Azmy, who will assist in training new Tunisian grain lab technicians and with installing the new equipment, reported that the team was able to further modify its equipment list by the end of the visit and was especially interested in the hands-on demonstration of aflatoxin detection.