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ARFA is Cabo Verde's independent food safety agency. ARFA is also responsible for certain food security measures (section 4.1.2), and the regulation of pharmaceuticals (section 3.4.9). Regulated products include food for human consumption, functional and novel foods, supplements and additives; pharmaceuticals for human use, cosmetics, and biocides. (...)

(...) There are no sanitary controls for processed products of vegetable origin. Genetically modified organisms are not regulated as such. (...)

Box 4.1 The Ilha Verde Project – a farm in Paraguay to supply the Cabo Verdean market
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The Cabo Verdean Government has recently revived the Ilha Verde Project. In 2013, it signed an establishment agreement with Agrícola Ilha Verde Ltd., a company with a seat in Praia and represented by Paraguayan investors (former partner of EMPA). The former EMPA-owned land (9,300 ha in total) and its other assets in Paraguay were sold to Agrícola Ilha Verde Ltd. for US$4 million. The Ministry of Finance and Planning, and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Business Development are responsible for oversight of the Ilha Verde Project. The project has an initial duration of 15 years.

According to the establishment agreement, the "contractual objectives" include:
a. implementation of the "necessary" investments in the "Complexo Industrial Agrícola Ilha Verde" (a 6 ha plot near Praia) and the Port of Mindelo for the production of bio-diesel, ethyl alcohol, grog and liquors; vegetable oils; animal feed rations, fertilizers and pesticides; raw materials for paints and varnishes; and packaging materials. The establishment agreement does not specify the total investment amount (planned investments are of the magnitude of €103 million over a ten-year period);
annual production after the investment period (12 years) of approximately 400,000 litres of alcohol or 1 million litres of grog (cachaça); 100,000 tonnes of biodiesel; 10,000 tonnes of feed rations; 12,000 tonnes of soya oil;
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In general, the Government's agricultural policy aims to increase productivity, enhance food security and mitigate rural poverty. Public sector investments are targeted mainly towards irrigation; greenhouses; agricultural research and knowledge transfer (such as artificial insemination of livestock); and environmental measures. (...)

Cabo Verde has outstanding notification obligations in the area of agriculture (domestic support and export subsidies). The domestic support measures that were listed in the Cabo Verde's "AGST Tables" for the base period (2003-05) are without exception Green Box measures (general services and environmental programmes).

The fisheries sector contributed 0.7% to GDP in 2011. The landed catch by the domestic fleet averages around 10,000 tonnes per year (9,839 tonnes in 2014). [12] (…)

[12] Mainly tuna (around 3,500 tonnes), small pelagic species (notably mackerel), demersal species, and lobsters. The sustainable catch level in Cabo Verde's EEZ (734,265 km2) is estimated at 36,000-44,000 tonnes. See "Fisheries and the Maritime Economy" in: Cabo Verde DTIS Update 2013.

(...) In 2014, the Government created a new independent agency (Autoridade Competente para o Produto da Pesca - ACOPESCA) whose responsibilities include ensuring compliance with SPS standards, inspections, export certification of fish and fisheries products, and compliance with legal requirements aimed at the prevention of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Inspection fees were revised in Decree-Law No. 42/2013. The National Institute for Fisheries Development (Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento das Pescas – INDP) is an autonomous agency responsible, inter alia, for fisheries research and statistics, and promoting fisheries and aquaculture. There are plans to merge the INDP with the National Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics.

Fisheries policy is governed, inter alia, by the framework law for fisheries of 2005 ; the Fisheries Management Plan for 2014-15 ; and the Fisheries Charter (Carta da Política das Pescas), a long-term plan for the fisheries sector in 2013-2018.

The Fisheries Management Plan for 2014-15 specifies, inter alia, the restrictions and licensing requirements for the most important fisheries, and foreign vessels. Lobster fishery is reserved for domestic vessels that are 100%-owned by Cabo-Verdean nationals, the State or other public collective persons (pessoas colectivas de direito público). The industrial fishery of pink lobster is limited to four licensees. Catch quotas for species other than pink lobster are not yet necessary, according to the authorities.

The Fishing Development Fund (Fundo de Desenvolvimento das Pescas SA - FDP) that was established in 1994 as a governmental agency for providing support to the fisheries sector, is extinct. (...)