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Latest news
July 1: The IOAS is now
able to accept applications from certification bodies for
accreditation againsts the requirements for Organic
Exchange textiles. Organic Exchange (OE) have established their own
certification requirements based on the International Requirements
for Organic Certification Bodies and these are very similar to those
applied by the Global Organic Textiles Standards (GOTS).
Certification bodies can choose to apply the OE 100 standard and/or
the OE Blended standard. All documents can be downloaded from the
OE web site.
February
1: The IOAS starts a pilot project with SAN on accreditation of
certification for the Rainforest Alliance label.
More
... January 31:
The CASCO Committee
Draft of ISO/IEC Guide 17065 (Conformity
assessment -- Requirements for certification bodies certifying
products, processes and services) which will replace the current
Guide 65 completed its latest comment period on January 31, 2010. It
is expected that final publication will be before the end of 2010.
The document is substantially restructured and improved reducing
some of the previous redundancy with greater prominence on
principles.
September 17: Miles McEvoy
of Washington State Department of Agriculture is appointed Deputy
Administrator of the USDA National Organic Programme. Miles is
currently Manager of WSDA, an IOAS accredited certification body and
will take up his post on October 1, 2009.
August 10: The IOAS signed
an agreement with Global Standard GmbH to implement accreditation
against the Global Organic Textile Standard GOTS. First applications
are already being processed. Current IOAS clients should contact
their Client Manager. For more information contact either
info@ioas.org or Marcus Bruegel
at GOTS on
bruegel@global-standard.org
July 28: The
CFIA has made a decision to take responsibility
for the certification activities outside of
Canada for products being shipped to
the US. In an official notice to the industry issued today
CFIA state that 'The CFIA will monitor Certification Bodies
providing certification to the terms of the agreement outside of
Canada for products exported to the US. Canada is sending to the NOP
the list of CFIA accredited certification bodies providing
certification to the terms of the agreements outside of Canada.'
Product certified under the COR can enter the
US without being directly NOP accredited and product certified under
the NOP (only applies when a CB is
directly accredited by the NOP ) can enter Canada. The
labeling rules for the respective countries of importation must be
followed The exceptions noted in the agreement must be respected.
The certification bodies will be responsible
to make sure the operators take note of these exceptions.
The above applies only to products being
imported into these countries. If you actively certify in either
country you must be accredited within that country.
This is a significant development. For those
CBs outside of Canada or the USA who
currently have both NOP and COR accreditation you are now able to
reduce this to one accreditation.
July 9: If you have
received a check (cheque) from the IOAS for no apparent reason this
check is fraudulent. Do not attempt to cash the check. Send us an
e-mail giving us the check number
and the amount. If you attempt to cash or deposit this it will not
only bounce but you could get into trouble with your bank and the
law. If you receive an e-mail saying the check was sent to you in
error and urging you to cash it and to send them money, do not do
so. If you are wondering why you were chosen for this scam, it is
probably because you recently advertised somewhere publicly (like
Craigslist) giving your name and address. Thanks for your
cooperation. June 29:
New import arrangements will come into effect in South Korea
from January 1, 2010.
The
proposed regulatory changes would require all foreign organic
certifiers, including those currently eligible, to apply with the
Korean Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF)
to become accredited certifiers for the Korean market.
June 29: The IOAS is providing a 3 day
training in Mexico in collaboration with the Servicio
Nacional de Sanidad Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASICA).
The course will take place in November 2009 and supports the
development and implementation of conformity assessment in organic
agriculture in Mexico.
June 26:
The Industry Foundation of Chonnam National University,
otherwise known as CONU,
South Korea has been granted accreditation against IFOAM Norms.
The contact person is Oksoo Han -
oshan@chonnam.ac.kr and
www.chonnam.ac.kr A full list
of IOAS accredited certifiers, the relevant norms, scope of activity
and countries of operation is constantly updated on the IOAS
web site.
June 23:
The IOAS sent 20
letters of recommendation for accreditation of certifiers to the
Canadian Organic Office on June 23, 2009. The Regime enters into
force on June 30th. The Canadian Organic Office will
issue decisions directly to the certifier concerned and a list of
approved bodies will be published on the COO web site. Products
produced before June 30th under another organic norm but certified
by a control body that has been assessed by an approved Conformity
Verification body (such as the IOAS) may continue to gain access to
the Canadian market during a two year transition phase.
... More
June 22:
IFOAM, FAO and UNCTAD announce a new phase of cooperation on
harmonisation called ‘Global Organic Market Access’. The new project
will support the three partner
institutions to now provide technical assistance in specific regions
to implement equivalency tools and other results of the
International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic
Agriculture (ITF), which ended in 2008.
Contact Diane Bowen for more
information. June 17:
US NOP announces equivalency agreement with Canada.
Announcements at the Chicago trade fair All Things Organic and an
exchange of letters marked the agreement of equivalence between the
USDA NOP and the Canadian Organic Regime, the latter due to enter
into force on June 30th. Contrary to what had been made clear before,
the equivalence appears to cover all directly accredited NOP
certifiers anywhere in the world. The IOAS is trying to establish
whether the reverse is true; that all certifiers accredited under
the Canadian Organic Regime anywhere in the world will also have
access to the US market.
More...
June 16:
Due to several high
profile cases in recent months relating to inputs approval and
certification, the IOAS are reviewing their handling of inputs
certification under ISO Guide 65 accreditation. The certification of
inputs 'suitable for use' under various regulations has become quite
widespread but it is a specialised area which lacks guidelines. The
drafting of such guidelines through a consultative process is being
considered.
June 5:
Qiao Yuhui
of PR China joins the IOAS Accreditation Committee. Dr Qiao is
currently an Associate Professor in the China Agricultural
University in Beijing and has been involved in many national and
international research and development projects on organic
agriculture as well working as an organic inspector in China.
June 5:
Ecocert-Afrisco based in Pretoria has been granted
accreditation against IFOAM Norms and ISO/IEC Guide 65. Afrisco are
also under surveillance for the IOAS European Recognition Programme.
the contact person is Diana Callear who can be contacted at
afrisco@global.co.za
April 19:
On April 18th the two Boards of IFOAM and IOAS met
to discuss the development of the IFOAM Accreditation Programme. New
proposals from a task force that sees increased interaction with
government systems, the maintenance of the core IFOAM Basic standard
and the development of an Organic Quality System Accreditation
received widespread support.
- March 10:
Afreen Rahman, Client Manager of the IOAS has left New Zealand to
establish an IOAS presence in his home country of India. He is now
based in the north east of the country in Jorhat. He can be
contacted at rahman@ioas.org
March 6: Rikke
Lundsgaard of Denmark and Jacqueline Haessig of the Philippines join
the IOAS Board of Directors. Rikke currently works as
agricultural policy
advisor for the Danish Society for Nature Conservation. Jacqueline
is involved in production and certification and currently sits
on the IFOAM World Board.
March 2: Organic
Standard Ltd of Ukraine has applied to the IOAS for accreditation against
ISO Guide 65 and under the European Recognition Programme.
The contact at Organic Standard is Ms Ksenia Gladchenko. Contact
details are: Organic Standard Ltd., 11 - A, Krakivska Street, Kyiv
City, 02100, Ukraine. Email:
organicstandart@ukr.net
February 23: Members of the
European Organic Certifiers Council signed a code of conduct at
BioFach, Nuremberg agreeing
common principles for the conduct of business. The aim of the code
is to harmonise procedures, improve trustworthiness and reputation
of organic certification. The code was
signed by 20 certification
bodies (16 in Europe, 2 in the USA, 1 in Argentina and 1 in Israel).
For details see www.eocc.nu
February 20: The USDA NOP
issues a notice and new approval procedures for 'high risk' farm
inputs. The procedures arose after several liquid nitrogen
fertilisers were suggested to be non-compliant with NOP regulations.
The new procedures will require on-site inspection of inputs
manufacturers producing such products and applies to all
certification bodies working under the NOP
NOP notice.
February 14:
The
amended
Organic Products Regulations 2009
(p344 for regulatory analysis and p363 for regulation) of Canada were published in
the Canada Gazette. The regulation describes the system of accreditation
and certfication as well as including the new Canadian Organic Regime
logo.
February 5: The IOAS is pleased to announce
the signing of first accreditation contracts under the IOAS Canada
Voluntary Accreditation Programme. This is a voluntary programme
which assesses compliance against the Canadian requirements for
certification bodies and acts as a precursor for the Canadian
regulatory programme which comes into being on the 30th June 2009.
It assists the certification body in establishing a Canadian
programme and will enable a smooth transition to the regulatory
system. The 4 accreditation bodies so accredited are: Agrior Ltd
(Israel); Instituto Biodinamico (Brazil); CCOF Certification
Services LLC (USA); International Certification Services Inc (USA).
The IOAS is currently assessing an additional 20 certification
bodies against the Canadian requirements.
January
30:
The
European Commission have published the 'Guidelines
for imports of organic products'
which explains in detail the
requirements for how certification bodies can apply for recognition of
equivalence. The IOAS will have a clear role in the provision of
equivalence assessment reports for certificaiton bodies and is
currently already offering this service.
December 24: The detailed rule
on imports from third countries into the EU was published as (EC)
1235/2008 on December 8, 2008. For those control bodies wanting to apply
for recognition as equivalent the initial deadline for applications has
been retained as October 31, 2009. The regulation can be downloaded from
the EU Lex site. For
details on applying to IOAS for an assessment report, go
here.
December 22: The NOSB have made a
final recommendation on 'Certifying Operations at Multiple sites' which is
available at the
NOSB site.
October 13, 2008: Ecoinspect of
Rumania has recently been granted
accreditation by the IOAS against Guide ISO/IEC65 with scope of Council
Regulation 2092/91 of the European Union. For full details please view
our full public listing of ISO/IEC 65
accredited certification organisations.
September
1: The IOAS invite
registrations for their first training course in P.R.China on 'Management of Organic Certification'. The 3 day course will take place
on December 1/2/3, 2008 in Nanjing. Please complete the registration
form and see further details on our training
page.
August 25: Dorota Metera of
Poland has recently been appointed to the IOAS Accreditation
Committee.
Dorota is both President of the
Board and Certification Director of Bioekspert a Polish Certification
Body. She has been involved in the development of organic agriculture in
Poland since 1993 in various positions and brings a wealth of experience
to the IOAS team.
August 1: The IOAS sent an
open letter to all non-client
certification organisations to draw their attention to the coming
changes in rules affecting access to the markets of Canada and the
European Union.
July 21:
The IOAS
are pleased to announce
that LibanCert SARL, also
working under the name of Quacerta, of Chiyah Boulevard Kamil Chamoun
Baaklini Center, 4th Floor, Beirut, Lebanon have recently been granted
accreditation against ISO/IEC Guide 65 with scope
regulation EEC 2092/91 Production and Processing standards
and
Lebanese Regulation NL 724; 2003. The contact person is Ms Roula Fares
-
roula@libancert.com and
www.libancert.com
July 9/10: Auditors from the
National Institute of Standards and Technology visited the head office
of the IOAS as part of their biannual reassessment of IOAS accreditation
programmes against ISO/IEC17011. The IOAS IFOAM and ISO/IEC Guide 65
accreditation programmes have been recognised by NIST as in compliance
with ISO17011 since 2004.
July 2: The Standing Committee on
Organic Farming voted to approve the latest draft of the detailed rules for
the implementation of (EC) 834/2007. The rules cover plant production,
livestock, processed products, packaging, transport and storage, conversion
rules, exceptional production rules (climate/geographical/structural, non
availability, specific management problems in livestock, catastrophic
circumstances), seed database, labelling, control and information to
the Commission.
June 20: EU officials
speaking at the IFOAM Organic World Congress made clear that the
detailed import rules are unlikely to appear before October 2008.
May 7: The IOAS Operating
Manual for Canada accreditation is now available. Download it
here.
April 10: IOAS received a
letter from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency indicating IOAS
compliance with the Canadian Organic Regime with regard to its
application to be an approved Accreditation Advisory Body. The letter
stated that 'The Canada Organic Office is satisfied with the level of
compliance with the Canada Organic Regime and would like to inform you
that the next step from the recognition of International Organic
Accreditation Service (IOAS) as an accreditation body under Canada
Organic Regime is the signing of the agreement between International
Organic Accreditation Service (IOAS) and CFIA'
View full letter.
April 7: Gergana Nentcheva of
Bulgaria commenced work with the IOAS as our new Client Manager. Gergana
was previously General Manager of Balkan Biocert in Bulgaria and brings
with her a wealth of experience in the organic sector.
Meet Gergana.
April 3: The National Organic
Standards Board in the USA issued their latest guidance proposals on 'commercial
availability of organic seed'. The proposals add more detail to guidance
issued in 2005 and include measures for operators and ACAs (certification
bodies). The
proposal will be discussed in the May 20-22 meeting of the NOSB.
March 25: The European Commission
released a further draft of the implementing rules for imports under
Articles 32 and 33 of EC 834/2007. The rules explain the process by which
third countries and certification bodies will be to apply to be placed on
the various 'approved' lists. The main change since the previous draft in
November 2007 is that the initial time period for certification bodies to
apply for equivalence has been extended from 6 to 12 months and for
compliance from 6 months to 3 years. The IOAS expect these rules to be
approved in mid 2008.
March 14: The Canadian Organic
Office (COO) completed their audit today of the IOAS as part of their
assessment for approval as an Accreditation Advisory Body under the Canadian
Organic Regime. Lead auditor Valeriya Staykova visited the IOAS Jamestown
office and did a witness audit of an IOAS surveillance visit in the USA. The
COO expect to make public the list of approved Accreditation Advisory Bodies
in April 2008. More ....
February 8: USDA announce
reorganisation and leadership changes to the National Organic Programme.
The NOP is reorganizing into three branches: Standards Development &
Review; Accreditation, Auditing & Training; and Compliance & Enforcement.
Deputy Administrator for Transportation & Marketing Programs Barbara
Robinson will assume overall leadership for the NOP in addition to her
other duties, while Mark Bradley will assume leadership for the
Accreditation, Auditing & Training Branch, and Richard Mathews will head
up the Standards Development & Review Branch. No decision has been made
for leadership of Compliance & Enforcement at this time. Also underway
is the creation of an electronic reading room, where all NOP records
that can be made publicly available will be accessible electronically,
including a new Q&A site to provide answers to questions posed to NOP.
More .....
February 7: A meeting between
Canadian officials and the EU Commission is planned for March 10-11 to
discuss programme equivalency.
February 6: Canadian Trade
delegation meets US officials to begin talks on country equivalency. On
February 6 a Canadian delegation including representatives of the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade are in Washington
D.C. to meet with US officials and begin talks on equivalency between
the two country's regulatory programs.
January 30: The IOAS are offering three training
course in 2008; two courses on 'Management of Organic Certification' and
one course on 'Assesment of Organic Certification Bodies'
January
28: The recent meeting
of the Standing Committee on Organic Farming has approved a new logo for
use on organic products in Europe.
January 25:
The IOAS wishes to appoint another Client Manager
to its team. Closing date for applications is February 20, 2008.
November 16:
The
European Commission published draft
detailed import rules which, once finalised, will
eventually be brought under a separate regulation. The rules provide a
clearer idea on the various compliance and equivalence routes for product
entry into Europe.
October 30: The IOAS is working in
partnership with trade organisations in the USA to determine appropriate
methods retailers could undertake to limit the incidence of fraudulently
traded organic products and to increase the chances of early detection when
it takes place within the retail supply chain.
More .....
October 2/3:
60 experts from organic trade businesses, organic certification bodies
and the competent authorities met in FiBL in Frick, Switzerland to
discuss measures to prevent and detect fraud in organic agriculture. The
IOAS was a co-organiser and presenter at the event which involved
participants from 12 countries.
More....
September 28: The three day IOAS course
on 'Management of Organic Certification' finished today in the USA. This
first course was attended by 19 participants, all from certifying agents
in the USA from the private and state sectors. For future courses check
here.
September 21: The
Standing Committee on Organic Farming that advises the EU Commission met
today to discuss the next steps for finalising the implementtion rules for
the new organic farming regulation EC 834/2007. The planned consultation
will now not be a full public consultation but to organisations on the
Commissions organic consultative committee as well as Member States. The
deadline for this round is end of October with an expected draft of the
implementing rules in January 2008.
September 20: The three and a half day IOAS
training course on 'Assessment of Organic Certification Bodies' finished
today in Switzerland. The third course of this type took place at the
Research Institute for Organic Farming (FiBL) in Frick. The 7 participants
were from accreditation bodies, government authorities and certification
bodies with country representation of Albania, Austria, Canada, Finland,
Ireland, Italy and Rumania. For future courses check
here.
August
30: The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has entered into a consent
agreement with Aurora Organic Dairy (Aurora) in response to a Notice of
Proposed Revocation issued earlier this year alleging violations of
National Organic Program (NOP) regulations.
Under the consent agreement, Aurora's Platteville, Colo., facility must
meet several conditions in order to continue to operate as a certified
organic dairy operation. These conditions include removing certain
animals from the organic herd and ceasing to apply the organic label to
certain milk. Additionally, AMS will exercise increased scrutiny over
Aurora's operations during a one-year probationary review period. If
Aurora does not abide by the agreement during that time, AMS may
withdraw from the agreement and could revoke the organic certification
for Aurora's Platteville, Colo., plant. More information on
USDA NOP site.
August
14:
Organska Kontrola of Bosnia & Herzogovina has recently been granted
accreditation by IOAS against IFOAM Norms and Guide ISO/IEC65. The
scope of the ISO65 accreditation is the Organska Kontrola standards and
seal programme. The certification body is based in Sarajevo. Contact
them at
office@organskakontrola.ba
August
3: The
IOAS announce a new application for assessment against IFOAM Norms from
TECPAR, Brasil. The Instituto de Tecnologia do Paraná, a public
company, is located in the city of Curitiba. The contact person is Vera
Kamienski at verak@tecpar.br
August
1: Angela Jackson, former
Director of the Organic Grass Fed Beef Coalition, has joined the IOAS today
as a new staff member. Angela lives in Vermillion, South
Dakota. As well as being trained and working as an organic inspector
she has a background in information technology.
July
10:
Two new applicant certification bodies - LibanCert of Beirut,
Lebanon and Ecoinspect of Romania
have both recently applied to
IOAS for ISO/IEC 65 accreditation. The contact persons are Roula Fares for
LibanCert (roula@libancert.com) and
Pirosca Lorencz for Ecoinspect (ecoinspect@from.ro)
June 12:
European Union agriculture ministers reached agreement today on a new
regulation on organic production and labeling. After over 18 months of
discussions, the new rules:
1. require mandatory use of the EU logo, although national and private logos
may appear alongside;
2. require the use of the organic logo may only be applied on 95% products
3. require that the general limit (for all foods) of 0.9% accidental
presence of GMOs will also apply to organic foods but foods with any higher
contamination levels will not be able to be sold as organic;
4. aligns the organic control system to the general one in the EU for food
and feed;
5. do not regulate restaurants and food catering but will allow Member
States to do so;
6. adds rules for organic wine, aquaculture, seaweed and yeast.
7. confirms the import arrangements published in December 2006.
May
31:
IFOAM Accredited certification bodies and members of the IFOAM CB forum
meet in Bonn today to discuss smallholder group certification. The
workshop planning is based on four guidelines/requirements for group
certification. These can be downloaded here:
1. European Commission Guidelines for Organic Producer Group Certification:
http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/standards/CB_Forum/EU_Guidance_Doc_Group_Cert.pdf
2. USDA National Organic Standards Board Recommendations for Certification
of Grower Groups:
http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/standards/CB_Forum/NOSB_Grower_Groups.pdf
3. IFOAM Accrediation Criteria for Group Certification:
http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/standards/ics/IAC_Group_Cert.pdf
4. Compiled Results of IFOAM Workshops on Smallholder Group
Certification: http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/standards/ics/Compiled_IFOAM_Smallholder_WS_Results.pdf
May
16:
IFOAM release new draft organic standard for comment. The IFOAM
invite to comment stated ' This new Benchmark
is the result of a process that was started in 2005 to comprehensively
revise the IFOAM Basic Standards and other parts of IFOAM’s Organic
Guarantee System (OGS). The System is being re-designed to make it more
accessible for organic producers, processors, traders, standards-setting
bodies, certification bodies, accreditation bodies, governments and other
stakeholders.
The plan for creating more accessibility of the private international
Organic Guarantee System includes establishing a baseline for organic
standards – one that differentiates organic systems from conventional
ones, rather than differentiating some organic systems from others.
Therefore the role of the Benchmark is to set the essential requirements for
the development of organic standards as well as provide flexibility to
recognize differences throughout the world such as in agro-ecosystems, basic
infrastructure and the stage of organic sector development.
www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/standards/OGS_Revision/IBS_Revision_Draft_20070416.doc
Comments are due by 14 June, 2007. Send comments
to M.Fecht@ifoam.org
May
10
:
IFOAM opens IFOAM Accreditation to accreditors other than the IOAS. The
'IFOAM In Action' newsletter announces that 'IFOAM Accreditation will
.... be more accessible through an expanded cooperation of IOAS and
other accreditation bodies ( mainly the “National Accreditation Bodies”)
to provide IFOAM accreditation. This decision was taken by IFOAM’s World
Board in March, 2007. Details for implementing it are still being worked out
between IFOAM and the IOAS.
May 2:
USDA NOPopens up discussion on smallholder certification. A message from the Deputy Administrator
Barbara Robinson was posted on the USDA NOP web site to clarify the USDA
approach to certification of smallholder groups. It states that the USDA
will 'do rulemaking to address the concerns that we have in the Program, but
... NOP will also collaborate with the Board about this – this will be a
topic on the fall meeting agenda for the NOSB'.
.... 'ACAs are reminded that as long as they use the NOSB recommendation for
interim guidance, no enforcement action will be taken by the Program related
to grower group certification.' See the full details at
www.ams.usda.gov/nop/GrowerGroupsLetter.html
February 25:
USDA NOP
withdraws acceptance of smallholder group certification. Although the
USDA have not issued a formal, written notice on the topic, certifiers at
a NOP training meeting were informed in January that products certified
based upon internal control systems which delegate control tasks in part
to the operator organisation would not be accepted under the NOP. The
decision appears to have emerged from an appeal case ruling of October
2006 that was dealt with by USDA and only recently (March 15, 2007)
published on the NOP web site at http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Compliance/AppealsSummaries/Sept05-Mar07.pdf
Based on an appeal by a Mexican group against their certifying agent, the
ruling was reported as finding 'the certifying agent's policies and
procedures for the certification of community grower groups were deemed
inconsistent with the NOP and had been implemented prematurely prior to
evaluation by the NOP' and concluded
that the 'use of an internal inspection system as a proxy for mandatory
on-site inspections of each production unit by the certifying agent is not
permitted.'
February 14:
European Commission publish draft amendments on 'New Approach'. The
European Commission adopted its proposals for a Council and European
Parliament Regulation and Decision within the framework of the revision of
the new approach and which is
now currently under consideration by the
European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
The Commission Proposal organises accreditation at the national and
European levels; irrespective of the different sectors of activity in
which accreditation is used. The proposal 'insists on the public authority
nature of accreditation in order for it to be the last level of public
authority control, and sets the framework for the recognition of the
existing organisation European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) so as
to ensure the proper functioning of a rigorous peer evaluation.' The
proposal also introduces market surveillance and intervention
measures and relies on customs authorities for controlling products from third
countries. The proposal specifically mentions that these new
arrangements will cover organic products. See http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newapproach/review_en.htm
December 21, 2006:
EU
Commission publishes new import rules. In late December the
European Commission approved amendments to Regulation EEC 2092/91, Article
11, which will affect the import of organic products into Europe. The
main change is the gradual phase out of the case-by-case product approval (the
so-called importer derogation) managed by Member State authorities,
to be replaced by direct approval of third country certification bodies
(without the need for a country conformity assessment system to be
approved). The direct approvals will be under the authority of the
Commission itself and (for CBs outside of Europe) will be able to be done
on a full compliance basis (accreditation against ISO/IEC 65 with scope of
EU Regulation) or on an equivalence basis (formal accreditation not
required and to equivalent criteria and standards). Both systems will
however require surveillance by an accreditation body or authority.
The Third Country list system will continue.
December 21, 2006:
Canadian authorities publishes new organic regulation. The
Organic Products Regulations of Canada were finally published bringing in
requirements for another major market for organic produce where before there
were none (or at least not in a harmonised sense across the territory). The
main implications for certification bodies working within Canada is that
they will have to be formally accredited by the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency through one of a number of approved accreditors. For those certifying
exports to the territory, access may either be through equivalency
recognition of a country system or by direct accreditation. The regulation
is available at http://canadgazette.gc.ca/part
II/2006/20061221-x6/html/extra-e.htmland
the Canadian Organic Standards are available at
http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/cgsb/on_the_net/organic/index-e.html
December 12, 2006:
Paraguay passes new organic regulation. Law available in Spanish
only.
590kb
November 21, 2006:
Bolivia passes new organic regulation. Law available in Spanish
only.
548kb
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