The European Commission has recently published a draft note with the aim of implementing stringent measures starting in January 2025 regarding the adherence to organic product standards in third countries. This decision comes as a response to the Commission’s observation that certain governments in various countries had relaxed regulations during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to negative effects on the accreditation bodies’ ability to guarantee the compliance of these products.

It is feared that this move will jack up certification costs in India, which had exported over $300 million of organic products to EU in 2021-22.

According to the Commission, a draft amendment has been issued concerning specific procedural prerequisites for the recognition of governing authorities and bodies responsible for conducting inspections on certified organic operators and groups of operators, as well as on organic products originating from third countries. The amendment also outlines certain requirements related to their supervision. It said: “national measures in third countries taken due to the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the ability of accreditation bodies and competent authorities to schedule and carry out witness audits for the purpose of recognition by control authorities and control bodies under the compliance regime.” So, to ensure a smooth transition from the equivalence regime to the compliance regime and to avoid risks of trade disruptions, the validity period of the witness audits will end in December 2023.

Under scrutiny

Last November, the EU had in Audit report on India had acknowledged that there was an overall structure in place with all the necessary elements for control of organic products, including a sophisticated IT system for supervising the controls and ensuring traceability. “However, there are many weaknesses in the supervision and implementation of the controls at various levels. The most significant is that the recent unannounced controls by APEDA as well as the audit team’s own findings show a high degree of non-compliance with the NPOP at producer groups and poor quality of inspections,” the report had said.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), which is recognised by the EU as equivalent for certain products, regulates the quality standards for export of organic products.

“EU regime change from process certification to product authenticity is a serious change of ecosystem in organic agriculture. This disruption will merely allow exporters with ‘neo-competency’ to survive in the export market,” said S Chandrasekaran, a trade policy expert. Referring to the EU audit report, he said it specifies laxity of APEDA in enforcement and supervision mechanism, the requirement of confidence building measures is a prerequisite to achieve bilateral understanding.

If producers’ groups have to seek recognition from additional agency that is recognised in EU, it will further add to their costs, he added. Already organic producers pay the certification agencies, recognised by APEDA under NPOP, for exporting their produce out of India.

The current rules and procedural requirements in EU came into force from January 1, 2022 and will expire on December 31, 2024. “To ensure a smooth transition between the two regimes and to avoid risks of trade disruptions, it is necessary to derogate temporarily from the rule set out in Article 1(2)(i) and in point 3(a) of Part B of Annex I to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1698, by extending the period within which witness audits may be carried out preceding their submission by control authorities and control bodies when applying for recognition under the compliance regime,” the EU said in the notification.

Control authorities and control bodies can start operating under the compliance regime only when they are recognised by the Commission. It is necessary to set out a timeframe within which control authorities and control bodies must notify the Commission that they have updated the technical dossier used for their recognition with new witness audits carried out based on their performance under the compliance regime.

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