Welcome
to the November, 2007 issue of the E-NEWS 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 500 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. There is no charge, the
distribution list is anonymous and unsubscribing can be done at any time
just by responding to
crucefix@ioas.org
The
International Federation of Organic
Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has released for comment the
second draft of their new Benchmark for Standards for organic
agriculture. This standard will replace the ‘Basic Standards’ of the
current 2005 norms which form (together with the ‘IFOAM Criteria’) the
basis for IFOAM Accreditation. The draft document may be downloaded from
the IFOAM web site
here. IFOAM have been working on a revision of their ‘Organic
Guarantee System’ since 2005 in order ‘to create more access to it’ by
certification bodies and their operators. All stakeholders and
interested parties are invited to comment, the deadline for
contributions being December 13th, 2007. A final draft of the
IFOAM Benchmark for Standards is due in February 2008.
The final draft will
then be available to IFOAM members for motions. Later in 2008, there
will be a process aimed at reconciling motions. Motions that cannot be
reconciled in this process will be decided via a membership vote and
then the entire final draft will be submitted to the IFOAM membership
for an accept or reject vote.
Following the publication of Regulations 1997/2006 (new import rules)
and 834/2007 (the new organic regulation) the
European Commission is
working on developing the detailed implementation rules which should
make clear how the new requirements must be implemented. The new import
rules came into effect from January 1 this year but cannot be applied
until the detailed rules are published. The amendment opens the
possibility for direct approval of certification bodies outside of
Europe by the Commission via accreditation or perhaps similar
surveillance system that demonstrates either compliance or equivalence
to the European rules. The Commission is currently inviting comment on
the handling of the ‘flexibility’ article of EC 834/2007.
Since
the decision in October 2006 that
determined that a
certifying agent’s policy of inspecting “only a percentage of producers”
in a group instead of annual inspections of each producer in the group
was inconsistent with 7 CFR §205.403 and the subsequent
temporary approval in
May 2007 by the National Organic
Program of USDA of the 2002 recommendation of the National
Organic Standards Board (NOSB) on ‘Criteria for Certification of Grower
Groups’ there has been further discussions and opinions expressed on how
such multi-site operations
might fit under the NOP. On October 1 the NOSB published a new
recommendation (view
here) that seeks to
‘ensure that groups unequivocally can exist within the regulatory
framework of the NOP’ and that the ‘concept of the organic
system plan is sufficiently robust to include internal control systems
that reduce or eliminate the need for annual direct observation by
inspection of each production unit, site or facility of an organic
operation, without regard to its area of operation’. In addition the
committee clarifies ‘the
distinction between the initial and annual inspections to make clear
that a sufficiently robust internal control system, that is described in
sufficient detail in the master OSP(organic system plan), may reduce or
eliminate the need for direct observation by inspection of each unit,
site or facility’. The recommendation suggests that the concept may
apply to a much broader scope than smallholder producers in developing
countries and that the initial inspection will have to cover all sites.
The recommendation will be discussed by the NOSB in late November.
The National Organic Standards Board
has also made recommendations on the content of organic
certificates (view
here) and some guidance on the establishment of ‘commercial
availability criteria’ with regard to non-organic agricultural products
(view
here)
The
IOAS is working in partnership with trade organisations in the USA to
determine appropriate methods retailers could undertake to deter and
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. The IOAS
has been contracted by the National Cooperative Grocers Association
which
is a
business services cooperative for 110 consumer-owned food co-ops located
throughout the U.S.
More
.....
The 7th
meeting of the
International Task force on Harmonisation will take place in
Bali, Indonesia on 27-30 November. The meeting will discuss equivalency,
group certification, certification body collaboration, the international
requirements for organic certification bodies and an ITF advocacy plan.
Previous work of the ITF and the agenda and details for this meeting are
available
here.
In
early November the IOAS conducted a two-day
training in Ankara, Turkey
for officials of the Ministry of Agriculture on authorisation and
accreditation of certification bodies. The training was conducted as
part of the 15 month project ‘Strengthening Organic Agriculture in
Turkey’ and funded by the European Union. Turkey is currently undergoing
the ‘third country’ process for recognition of its standards and control
system as equivalent to that of Europe. In September the IOAS held its
annual training course for government authorities and accreditation
bodies in Switzerland and conducted its first training course on
‘Management of Organic Certification’ in North Dakota, USA.
IOAS
is offering the following training
in 2008:
‘Assessment of Organic Certification Bodies’ in September at FiBL,
Frick, Switzerland and ‘Management of Organic Certification’ with dates
and place to be finalised. Check for details on the IOAS
web site.
AsureQuality
is the new name of
AgriQuality of New Zealand which has merged with ASURE New Zealand Ltd.
The IFOAM Accreditation of AgriQuality has been transferred to the new
company. Further details can be found at the new company web site
www.asurequality.com
The
Washington State Department of
Agriculture (WSDA) recently applied for accreditation with
IOAS against ISO/IEC Guide 65. WSDA have taken advantage of their
scheduled reassessment against IFOAM Norms to combine the two
evaluations together. As a result of the new IOAS information handling
systems and savings due to combining visits the cost of additional
accreditations is around 30% the cost of a full standa alone
accreditation. The IOAS ISO65 programme has grown rapidly since its
launch in 2003 with currently 13 accredited bodies and 8 applicants.
IOAS
assessments and
surveillance in the last 3
months has included full site visits of Biokontroll (Hungary), OCIA
(USA), UgoCert (Uganda), TanCert (Tanzania) and surveillance visits of
Ecoland, GÄA and Naturland (Germany), GOAA and DCOK of South Korea and
ACT of Thailand.
Comments
on the performance and compliance with relevant norms are invited on the
following certification bodies which are undergoing, or about to
undergo, assessment or reassessment: TECPAR, Brasil (IFOAM), LibanCert,
Lebanon (ISO65), Ecoinspect (ISO65), WSDA, USA (IFOAM & ISO65),
Naturland, Germany (IFOAM), OIA, Argentina (IFOAM), JONA, Japan (IFOAM &
ISO65), BIOS, Italy (IFOAM).
Complaints
are also invited on the work of both IOAS and accredited certification
bodies. Complaints should be submitted in writing, providing as much
detail as possible on the issue. The IOAS complaints policies can be
found
here.
