Improving the Organic Certification System
Workshop in Brussels, October 14, 2011
Overview of the Certification Sector
Lizzie Melby Jespersen
ICROFS, Aarhus University, Denmark
Seventh Framework
Programme
Grant Agreement No.
207727
Objective:
To create improved overview of the present
regulation and control of the organic sector:
Review of EU and international legal framework relevant
for organic standards setting and control. (Susanne Padel)
Definition of relevant economic concepts and glossary of
important terms. (Alexander Zorn et al.)
Public database on all actors involved in the organic
certification chain for 19 EU and associated countries:
www.organicrules.org. (Lizzie Melby Jespersen)
Overview of publicly available control prices and an
estimate of the size of the organic certification sector.
(Lizzie Melby Jespersen).
Legal framework considered in the review:
European Food Law
Regulation (EC) 178/2002, Regulation (EC) 882/2004
European Organic Regulations
EEC/2092/91, EC/834/2007, EC/889/2008 & EC/1235/2008
ISO Guide 65/EN45011
Regulation (EC) 765/2008 on Requirements of
Accreditation Bodies
Codex Alimentarius Guidelines (GL 32-1999)
International Initiatives
Int. Task Force on Harmonisation.., Anti Fraud Initiative, ISEAL,
EOCC, Alternative Organic Guarantee systems (ICS and PGS).
Certification systems under Regulations (EC) 509/2006
(TSG) and 510/2006 (PDO/PGI)
Regulation problems identified
Lack of consistency and transparency in the regulatory
framework in relation to approval and surveillance of CBs
and enforcement of EC 834/2007 by competent authorities.
Lack of clarity on the impact of the OFFC on the organic
control system.
Competition among organic control bodies for clients may
lead to less strict inspection systems.
Lack of harmonised procedures (penalties and follow up)
related to irregularities & infringements.
Lack of risk orientation in control planning & inspection
visits in relation to detection of fraud
Lack of co-ordination between the different actors in the
control systems
www.ORGANICRULES.ORG database
(data from 2008 if nothing else has been stated)
19 countries, 356 deposits
CH
CZ
DE
DK
IT
TR
UK
AT
EE
ES
FI
FR
HU
NL
NO
PL
RO
SE
SI
WWW.ORGANICRULES.ORG database content:
Short statistical overview of the organic sector
Contact details and links to relevant web sites for all
actors in the certification chain:
Competent authorities (national & regional), accreditation bodies,
control authorities and control bodies, standards owners,
certification subsidising authorities.
For Accreditation Bodies: Accreditation schemes offered,
control bodies accredited, Price of 1st time accreditation and annual
fees.
For Control bodies: Countries and standards certified, number,
types and changes of operators, pricelist on various services, authorization withdrawals, number of employees (and annual status report).
For Standards owners: Number of operators, logo applied and
license fees.
For Subsidising authorities: Subsidy requirements and size of
certification subsidies.
Contact details by country: Czech Rep.
Certification chain overview by country: NORWAY
Control bodies with public price information on web site
Country
No. of
CBs
No. of CBs with CBs with price
information in
price info. on
web site
% of all CBs
CZ
3
2
67
DE
22
3
14
IT
18
8
44
UK
9
4
44
CH
4
2
50
TR
10
2
20
Organic control is free of charge in DK
Control fees and size of organic certification sector:
Difficult to compare prices and services between CBs and between
countries.
In case study on 3 farm types prices varied from CZ being cheapest
(66-109 €), followed by IT (262-375 €), DE (350-420 €), UK (526-571
€), Turkey (544-798 €) and Switzerland (811-1003 €).
The variation in fee size within countries was more or less the same as
between countries for several of the countries (e.g. CH, IT, and TR).
Average time spent on control of the 3 farm cases in the EU countries
was 7-10 hours, in CH: 7 hours and in TR: 21-34 hours.
The variation in time spent on the control was generally larger within
countries than between countries.
In 2008 about 1500 staff (FTE) were employed in the organic
certification sector (competent authorities, accreditation bodies, control
authorities and bodies) in the 27 EU countries.
In 2008 the cost of 1500 staff FTE corresponded to about 35-55
million € giving an estimated turnover in the organic certification sector
of the EU-27 of at least 70-110 million €.
Thank you!
Special thanks to the European Commission for their support and the members of the project
consortium for their ongoing cooperation
This presentation was generated as part of the CERTCOST Project, agreement no. 207727
(http://www.certcost.org), with financial support from the European Community under the 7th
Framework Programme. The publication reflects the views of the author and not those of the
European Community, who is not to be held liable for any use that may be made of the
information contained.
Seventh Framework
Programme
Grant Agreement No.
207727