After a drop in exports to the EU since the beginning of the year, Britain’s organic sector is facing further upheaval over a European Commission proposal to revoke recognition of UK organic certification bodies.
After months of uncertainty, the UK’s six organic certification bodies were officially recognized by the EC last December for a period of 12 months, in a separate deal from the UK’s trade agreement with the bloc. However, there was currently no agreement to extend it and the EC was reportedly reluctant to do so.
Growers faced “a lot of uncertainty as we head into 2022,” said Lee Holdstock, senior manager of trade and business development for the Soil Association.
Failure to agree on an extension of third-country recognition would likely mean that organic produce repackaged or relabeled in Britain after arriving from abroad could no longer be shipped to the bloc or Northern Ireland, a spokesman suggested. of the NFU.
The matter had been up in the air for most of the year, according to Roger Kerr, executive director of Certified Organic Farmers & Growers, which along with the Soil Association has discussed a potential legal challenge on the issue.
“Before Brexit, many agri-food products passed through the UK before being shipped,” Kerr added.
Several EU member states are against removing recognition of UK bodies, according to OF&G. But if EU recognition of accreditation bodies were to be revoked, some UK-based companies could move “a significant part of their operations out of the UK as they will have to sell in the EU,” Kerr warned.
The current uncertainty follows what Holdstock described as “some unavoidable slowdown in trade” over the past 11 months, with Kerr noting how the organic sector’s “very integrated supply chains” with the EU had been “severed,” despite of the recognition of the United Kingdom by the EC. sector and the subsequent UK trade deal with the bloc.
HMRC data for the 12 months to September shows that total UK agri-food exports to the EU, including meat, cheese and fruit and vegetables, fell by 22% in volume terms. Meanwhile, total food and beverage exports fell 17%.
It was “impossible in HMRC trade data to split organics, so they may have followed the general trend,” the NFU spokesman added.
The European Commission did not respond to a request for comment.