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Email
Update Service : June 2006
Welcome to the June,
2006 issue of the email update
service provided by the IOAS and prepared specifically for regulatory
authorities and related bodies active in the oversight of the organic food
and farming sector. The mailing is now going to over 450
professionals in this sector. Its purpose is to provide regular, clear and
concise information about the IOAS, its work and the wider organic
regulatory world. Please pass it on to any colleagues you think may be
interested or request that it be sent
direct to your desktop. There is no charge, the distribution list
is anonymous and unsubscribing can be done at any time just by responding
to authorities@ioas.org
New
applicant for IFOAM Accreditation -
Organska Kontrola of Bosnia & Herzegovina has recently applied to IOAS
for accreditation against IFOAM Norms and Guide ISO65. They can be contacted
at: Butmirska cesta 40, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina Tel: +397
33 (0) 63 73 01 and email office@organskakontrola.ba
The contact person is Maida Hadziomerivic.
Welcome to Organska Kontrola.
Guide
ISO65 accreditation - Australian
Certified Organic were recently awarded accreditation against Guide ISO65
with scope of Australian Organic Standards and BFA Seal Programme. ACO also
recently appointed a new Chief Executive Officer, Michael Blakeney to
oversee the operations of both the parent company Biological Farmers of
Australia (BFA) and ACO. These additions bring the total number of Guide
ISO65 accredited bodies under IOAS to 8 with 3 applicants. IOAS offers
Guide ISO65 accreditation for those certification bodies needing to
comply with the requirements of EEC 2092/91.
Voluntary
withdrawal from IFOAM Accreditation
- Ekoagros of Lithuania and Kez o.p.s of the Czech Republic have voluntarily
withdrawn from IFOAM Accreditation in recent months.
Regulatory
programmes
- amongst the now 33 certification organisations accredited by IOAS, 21 are
also accredited under the NOP and 3 work under the NOP country conformity
assessment recognition system; 9 work directly under the EU Regulation, 8
work in third countries recognised as operating equivalent systems to
EC2092/91 and 13 gain access to the EU through Article 11.6; 2 are JAS
accredited and 6 others run JAS programmes; and 3 are accredited by CAAQ in
Quebec. Three certification organisations offer private organic
certification that do not come within the scope of regulatory systems.
KRAV,
Sweden
- the IFOAM Accredited certification organisation KRAV has transferred
its IFOAM Accreditation to a new subsidiary company called Aranea
Certifierung. The KRAV standards remain the reference standard and the KRAV
label remains the indication on product. Inspection and certification is now
performed by Aranea and Aranea is the accredited entity. Aranea is broadening
its certification activity into other areas. See www.araneacert.se
Keep
up to date
- in order to keep up to date with changes in the status of certification
bodies accreditated by IOAS against IFOAM Norms and Guide ISO65, please see
our web site at www.ioas.org Recent
changes to the format of IFOAM accredited public listings now
mean that it is possible to check the year the body was first
accredited, the date the most recent accreditation contract was signed (IOAS
works on a four year accreditation cycle) and the date of expiry of the
accreditation contract. The 'countries of operation' list refers to the
countries in which the IFOAM accredited programme of the body is
operational.
Operator
and transaction certificates
of operations certified under an IFOAM accredited programme must carry
reference to the certification body's IFOAM accreditation, compliance with
IFOAM Norms or the IFOAM Seal. If there is no such reference, the operator
is not in the IFOAM programme of the certification body. Accreditation
rarely covers all activities of a certification body, so it is important to
clarify to which certification progamme or standards it applies.
CAAQ
surveillance
- earlier this month Jan Deane, Programme Manager of the IOAS, performed the
first surveillance visit on behalf of CAAQ (Quebec) on OCIA of the USA. Of
the six CAAQ accredited certification bodies (as opposed to recognition for
import purposes) 3 are accredited against IFOAM Norms. This is the first direct
collaboration with a government approval mechanism that IOAS has undertaken. A
further visit will take place to International Certification Services later
this year which will combine reassessment against IFOAM Norms, CAAQ and
addition of Guide ISO65.
Krista
Wanser,
a US-national based in Nebraska recently joined IOAS on a half time basis to
enable IOAS to continue growing its various programmes. Krista has wide
experience of conformity assessment, particularly in organic agriculture.
IOAS now have four staff members in the USA, 3 in Europe and 1 in Australia.
IOAS
training - two
further training courses for government authorities and accreditors on
assessment of organic certification bodies are planned for 2006. One is taking
place in Switzerland on November 20-23 and the other in Bangkok on
December 6-9. Both courses will be delivered in English.
Individuals or groups interested in attending the courses should contact
IOAS at training@ioas.org
NOP
amendments
- on June 8, 2006, USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) published a final
regulation on Harvey v. Johanns as they were obliged to do following the
final judgment from the case on June 9, 2005. The final regulation makes 3
main changes: 1. It revises the NOP regulations to clarify that
non-organically produced products listed in section 205.606 of the
regulations may be used as ingredients in or on processed products labeled
as “organic” only when such organic products are not commercially
available (effective date June 9, 2007); 2. It revises section 205.236
of the NOP regulations to eliminate what is commonly known as the
“80/20” feed provision, and no milk may be labeled as organic and enter
the stream of commerce after June 9, 2007, as a result of the 80/20 feed
provision. Thereafter, transitioning dairy producers will no longer be
able to use 20 percent non-organic feed during the first nine months of
whole herd conversion from conventional to organic production; and 3.The
final rule further addresses dairy herd conversion by allowing crops and
forage from land, included in the organic dairy system plan, of a dairy farm
that is in its third year of organic management to be fed to the converting
animals (effective date June 7, 2006).
NOP
draft procedures on country equivalence
have been posted on the NOP web site on June 19. The procedures are the
first public documentation of an already operational procedure which
has been used to recognise the conformity assessment procedures of foreign
governments. To date five 'foreign government conformity assessment
programmes' have been approved: British Colombia, Denmark, New Zealand,
Quebec, Standards Council of Canada and the United Kingdom. See http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/TodaysNews.html
EU
Regulation 2092/91 -
following the release of the Austrian Presidency Note on April 7 offering
'drafting suggestions' for parts I, II, III, VI and VII of the proposal, further
suggestions have followed for titles IV and V dealing respectively with
'Labelling' and 'Controls' on April 28th. The draft maintains the original
proposal's positions on excluding 70-95% products, requires the use of the
EU logo or the word EU ORGANIC (or equivalent in a community language) on
products, requires Member States to set up a control system in conformity
with Regulation (EC) Nr. 882/2004, requires 'accreditation' of
control bodies against EN45011 and although permitting control bodies
to set their own standards, still maintains the requirement that a
control body using private standards 'shall
not refuse to grant operator licences, its own certificates or marks of
conformity for any product, process or service that has been certified by
another approved control body operating as a certification body'. With
regard to imports and the current expiry of the allowance under article 11.6
on December 31, 2006, it seems clear that there
will be an extension of the possibility for Member States to continue
to grant import authorisations for individual products until the new regime
has been put in place.
Wal-Mart
the worlds largest retailer announced in April that it
would begin selling organic food at its famously low prices, charging only a
10% premium over non-organic.
Garlic
being sold as organic in the UK supermarket stores of Tesco has been found
to contain pesticide residues in tests by a government watchdog. In a
report released in June it was stated that it is
the first time the Pesticide Residues Committee (PRC) has detected chemicals
in produce claiming to be organic. The garlic, imported by Tesco from Spain,
contained residues of the fungicide carbendazim. The residues were found at
the maximum legal safety level set for non-organic produce.
IFOAM
Conference on Animals in Organic Production - USA, August 23-25, 2006
BioFach,
Japan - September 21-23, 2006
IFOAM Conference
on Organic Certification - Rome, November 15-17th, 2006
Call
for comments
- IOAS invite comments on the performance (relevant to accreditation norms)
of the following certification bodies, about
to or are, currently undergoing evaluation or reevaluation: Doalnara
Certified Organic Korea and Global Organic Agricultture Association of
S.Korea, AgriQuality, New Zealand, Ecoland,
Germany, Quality Assurance International,
USA (all against IFOAM Norms)
and Organska Kontrola, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, International Certification Services, USA, National
Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia, Organic Food Development
& Certification Center, PR China (against IFOAM and ISO65).
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