Agriculture Minister Abdel Moneim Al Banna issued a decision yesterday that allows the Quarantine Authority to contract accredited, privately-run labs to test samples of cargo being examined ahead of export, Al Shorouk reports, citing a ministry statement. Testing costs will be set based on individual agreements with each of the contracted labs. The decision means to reroute some of the backlog at the government’s central testing facilities, which has been growing since tighter inspection regulations were issued, mandating that shipments be examined at various stages of their preparation. The government has been more stringent about controlling the quality of goods marked for export after several Arab countries issued bans on a number of Egyptian crops for containing unsafe levels of residual pesticides. The Agricultural Exports Council had said earlier in January that it was close to sealing an agreement with a European labs that would work in tandem with Egyptian inspectors to test cargo before its approved for shipping.