E-News July 2007

Welcome to the July, 2007 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 600 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

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) Welcome to both organisations.

Agreement on new EU regulation - Agriculture Ministers of European Union Member States reached agreement on June 12th on a regulation which will replace the current (EC) No 2092/91 in 2009. Although not yet formally published a press release was issued highlighting the main features of the new regulation. The regulation has not changed substantially from previous versions; it maintains reference to the food and feed control regulation (EC) No 882/2004, it maintains the much-debated 0.9% accidental presence of GMO threshold (and closes a loophole which currently means that it is possible to sell products labelled as organic which contain traces of GMOS above 0.9%), allows for flexibility based on stated criteria, does not regulate restaurants but does bring in rules for aquaculture, wine, seaweed and yeast. The import rules remain as published in December 2006. Detailed rules still remain to be agreed to clarify the rules and implementation relating to production, labelling, the control system, imports and free movement. The latter is also contentious in that although the Commission aims to remove barriers to trade, the private control bodies fear limitation of their right to decide whether products may carry their private label.

USDA publishes amendments to national list - on June 21st the USDA published interim amendments to the list of allowed and prohibited substances which adds 38 minor ingredients for use as non-organic agricultural ingredients. Such products may only be used when the certifying agent determines that organic sources are unavailable. The amendment to the list was required by the Harvey vs Johanns judgment in 2005. USDA are allowing a further 60 day comment period on this amendment. View Federal Register for details.

In a case of fraud heard by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission a company which admitted it substituted conventional free range eggs to make up a shortfall of organic free range eggs over an extended period has agreed to pay AU$270,000 in compensation. The majority of the money will go to the Organic Federation of Australia to be used in the development of a national standard for organic products being drafted by Standards Australia. AU$54,000 will go to the IOAS accredited certification body NASAA which owns the organic mark under which the company sold the eggs.

The Association of Producers, Processors and Traders of Organic Products in Cataluña Spain, last week presented allegations against the Catalan government certification body for charging too much and for allowing limited time to pay the fees. The Association states that the public sector certifier charges may be as much as 400-600% more than private certifiers. Legally Catalan organic producers may not use the private certification services which are now widely available in Spain.

IOAS Accreditation training - following two well-received courses in 2005 and 2006, a further course on 'Assessment of organic certification bodies' is planned for 2007. A course (in English) will be held at the Research Station for Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Frick, Switzerland on 17-20th September followed by an optional study tour of organic enterprises arranged by FiBL. Places are limited. Contact IOAS at training@ioas.org for more information and application forms or visit www.ioas.org/train.htm

IOAS Certification training – IOAS announce their first formal course on ‘Management of Organic Certification’ to take place in conjunction with the Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Resources Management and Sustainability (FAR^RMS) in North Dakota, USA. The 3-day course, which will take place on September 27-29, 2007 is aimed at senior managers and Board and Committee members of certification bodies and will use many examples and case studies based on IOAS experience around the world. Places are limited. Contact IOAS at training@ioas.org for more information and application forms or visit www.ioas.org/train.htm

IFOAM Benchmark standards - the first round comment period on the new IFOAM Benchmark standards ended on June 14th. On current planning the IFOAM Standards Committee response to the comments is due out in September and a further round is due to take to take place in mid October. All interested parties are encouraged to comment.

New IOAS web site - the IOAS has recently launched an upgraded web site providing much more detailed information on the work of the IOAS, a more user friendly interface and access to more general information on the regulation of organic agriculture. Please take a look.

The Second Meeting and Fair on Organic Agriculture in Latin America will take place in the city of Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala between 1-5 October 2007. The meeting and wide range of associated activities aims to bring together and document the experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean on the subject of production, processing, marketing and research in organic agriculture. More information.

Call for comments - IOAS invite comments on the performance (relevant to accreditation norms) of the following certification bodies, which are about to or currently undergoing evaluation or reevaluation: Biokontroll of Hungary, BIOS of Italy, IMC of Italy, Naturland of Germany, OIA of Argentina, Washington State Department of Agriculture of USA (all against IFOAM Norms) and Agrior of Israel, OCIA of USA, TanCert of Tanzania and UgoCert of Uganda (against IFOAM and ISO65).

IOAS meetings - the next meetings of the IOAS are planned for Bray, Ireland in October 2007 and for 2008 Minneapolis, USA; Modena, Italy and Germany. As part of a wider enviornmental policy development the IOAS have commenced a programme to look at alternative ways of working to reduce air miles.