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Australian
Certified Organic - Australia
The co-operative of Biological Farmers of Australia was formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1987 by a group of people with a common interest in organics. In 1989 the development of a set of working standards was completed and by the early 1990's the BFA was accredited under the Australian National Standard and by the Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service (AQIS). In 1993, the first version of the BFA standards was completed followed by version 2 in 2000 and a further update was released in October 2000. The standards cover both organic and biodynamic production systems.
BFA became IFOAM accredited in 2002 and the accreditation was, in 2003, transferred to a subsidiary company, Australian Certified Organic or ACO, the certification arm of BFA.
BFA is now solely the promotion and standard setting arm of the group.The BFA is Australia's largest organic industry advocacy organisation and ACO is Australia's largest certifier for organic and biodynamic products with around 1400 operators under its surveillance.
ACO, as an independent subsidiary of BFA, provides a complementary facet of these activities by providing a market guarantee for producers and consumers.
The ACO IFOAM Programme is identified on product and certificates by the
logo shown here.
ACO employ 12 full time staff sharing the Brisbane office and contract 20 inspectors to perform the field evaluations. A Certification Review Committee is responsible for certification decisions.
The IFOAM Accredited Programme of ACO covers crop production, livestock, wild products, processing and handling, grower groups, retailing. Non accredited activity of ACO includes aquaculture, forestry, eating establishments, fibre processing and wild game and marine products. Input manufacturing is also excluded and is handled by the parent organisation BFA. ACO were also granted
ISO65 accreditation by IOAS in 2006 with a scope of the BFA Australian
Organic Standards.
ACO operators produce a full range of products from milk to avocado and from meat to grains and herbs. Activity outside of Australia is mainly focused in South East Asia including New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Thailand.
Lee Coats - General Manager
Akiko Nicholls - Certification Manager
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Last updated:
31/01/2008
AUSTRALIAN CERTIFIED ORGANIC
PO Box 530, Ground floor,
766 Gympie Road,
Chermside,
Queensland 4032
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3350 5706 Fax: +61 7 3350 5996
Email: info@aco.net.au
Web: www.australianorganic.com.au
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