Four organizations in the European Union (EU) dealing with organic products have asked the EU Organic Production Committee to prevent the Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) from granting accreditation to agencies that certify exports of organic products from India to the Union.
They have also called on the EU to remove India from the list of countries recognized for organic product exports to the EU and directly monitor shipments from the subcontinent.
The organizations, in a letter to the chair of the Committee, Elena Panichi, pointed to the steps taken by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which had directly taken over the supervision of organic product exports from India. to the United States.
In July of this year, the USDA finalized a 15-year agreement with the Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) that allows the latter to accredit agencies that certify the export of organic products to the US. The USDA had said it was changing its approach to organic “oversight” in India under its National Organic Program.
Additional audits
The four organizations asked the EU to improve the quality of organic products imported into the EU on a permanent basis and to control the functioning of APEDA in this perspective.
One of the ways could be to generate “some additional audits” and make sure that APEDA “is reacting and functioning in the proper way as required by the control system.”
The organizations even suggested allowing the creation of an alternative body to APEDA, to control and supervise organic exports. Until then, Indian farmers should have time to transition and EU countries should be able to import Indian organic products without interruption.
‘Review deregistration’
The communication was sent to the EU Committee asking it to review its decision to blacklist five certifying agencies that certify India’s organic product exports to the European Commission.
The five certifying agencies (CU Inspections India, Ecocert India, Indian Organic Certification Agency (Indocert), Lacon Quality Certifications and OneCert International) have been discharged for not complying with the regulations on the presence of ethylene oxide (ETO) in their products. consignments, particularly sesame. (until/with caution).
APEDA followed up the derecognition of the five companies by suspending accreditation for Aditi Organic Certification for one year and banning four others: CU Inspections India, ECOCERT India, the Indian Organic Certification Agency (Indocert) and OneCert International, to register any new organic processor or exporter. for the certification of organic products.
All five came under the APEDA lens after some shipments authorized by them failed to meet the standards for ETO presence. APEDA officials did not comment on the letters from the four organizations until this report was published.
The EU organizations said that in view of the committee’s blacklist, “hundreds of thousands of Indian organic farmers will find it difficult to export their organic products to the EU and the interests of companies selling and customers buying will also be harmed.” their products in Europe.
The organisations, Organic Processing and Trade Association (OPTA), Europe, SYNABIO, BioNederland and the Association of Organic Food Producers, said that ETO was a post-harvest related problem and that farmers were not the cause but the victims of the contamination. .
charge against authority
The five unrecognized agencies certified about 80 percent of organic products imported into Europe from India, which is the sixth largest country for imports to the EU. “This means that many operators in the EU that rely on ingredients from India will be affected quite severely,” the organizations said.
Panichi was told that to meet the interest of organic companies and consumers in Europe, as well as affected organic farmers, the committee should re-evaluate how best to improve the quality of ETO controls in India.
The EU should at least establish a suitable transition time and regime if the Commission is convinced it has taken the right step, while allowing organic farmers in India to continue to market their produce, the organizations said.
Appreciating that the committee took responsibility for the integrity of organic products, they said the control system in India was facing difficulties. The problems were not only caused by the five blacklisted firms, but also by APEDA, they charged.
“The information was withheld or delivered too late to the control bodies and also the information delivered by the control bodies to APEDA was sent to the Commission by APEDA very late,” the four organizations alleged.
Trade analysts saw the move by the four organizations as an attempt to dictate terms on behalf of the certifying agencies and intervene with India’s sovereign rights.