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ORGANIC FARMING,ISO FARMING STANDARDS AND TRAINING

Moving away from globalisation in the abstract, we do realise that this is a phenomenon that affect real people and places in real time and space.

Strict movement restrictions, bio-security measures and controls of imports to European Union is something that farmers in the developing world are struggling to understand. Being such a big market, we have teamed up with our EU associates to run local seminars and training on how to achieve these high production standards in order to enter this lucrative yet restricted market.

There are a myriad of issues to grapple with; farm subsidies that make EU products cheaper, EU lobbyists who want EU supermarkets to buy locally, the high cost of production in developing countries and of course labour issues that seem to be dogging large scale farmers who have scant respect to employees (call them labourers) on their farms especially in the developing world.

Why should you work with us?

Due to the difficulties and technical challenges presented by these legislations, it is only helpful if farmers and exporters are enlightened. To understand the complexities of these legislation, we briefly discuss the issues below.

The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

The legislative text of the agreement on reforms of the much disputed EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was finally adopted by EU Agriculture Ministers on 29 September 2003.

This agreement for example, stipulates inter alia a 50% reduction in the intervention support price for paddy rice (to 150 Euros a tonne), and an annual purchasing limit of 75, 000 tonnes on the volume of rice that could be imported into the EU (100, 000 tonnes in 2003-4) under this intervention. EU rice farmers are to be compensated by the provision of area-based support payments, to be paid at a rate based on national/regional reference yields multiplied by 177 Euros a tonne. Accordingly, the subsidy payable to EU rice producers is to be increased from 52.65 Euros a tonne to 177 Euros a tonne, of which 102 Euros a tonne will be included in the single payment scheme. Council Regulation No. 1785/2003 of 29 September 2003 identifies in paragraphs 3, 5, 10 and 11 the reasons for and the form of such a change: This illustrates how influential this law is and its ramification on imports from the developing world.

The UK Farm Imports Regulations ( www.defra.gov.uk/farm/organic/imports/standards.htm)

Imports from third countries Article 11(6):

implementation of standards EN 45011 or ISO 65 (Commission document 7607/VI/97 rev.3)

1. Conformity with the requirements of standards EN 45011 or ISO 65 for inspection bodies(1) in third countries
As a principle the inspection body in the third country should satisfy the requirements of either the Standard EN 45011 or the equivalent rule at international level Standard ISO 65. Such conformity can be decided by:

2. The official accreditation body designated in the third country (preferably an official accreditation body should be subject to international mutual recognition agreements based on peer evaluation put into place by the International Accreditation Forum - IAF -) or in any MS of the European Union for accreditation inspection bodies.
3. The official accreditation body in the third country must comply with the requirements for accreditation bodies provided for in Standard ISO 61;
4. The competent authority in the third country (Government).
5. The competent authority in the MS who is going to grant the authorization.

In case 1: the importer must submit to the competent authority the relevant accreditation certificate or other documentary evidence that the inspection body is in conformity with the requirements of standards EN 45011 or ISO 65. The official accreditation process foresees periodical surveillance and re-assessment of the accredited inspection and certification bodies.

In case 2: the importer must submit the legal basis and the documents ensuring that a competent authority in the third country guarantees the conformity of the inspection body with the requirements of standards EN 45011 or ISO 65, and a periodical surveillance and re-assessment of the accredited inspection bodies, according to the requirements of EN 45011 or ISO 65, is made.

In case 3: the importer must submit to the competent authority in the MS all the information required by the competent authority to take a decision on the compliance with standards EN 45011 or ISO 65. A regular periodical surveillance and re-assessment of the accredited inspection bodies, according to the requirements of EN 45011 or ISO 65, must be made by: (a) independent and competent experts or official accreditation bodies agreed or designated by the competent authority in the MS (other inspection bodies cannot do this work).

The conditions indicated in the first paragraph, point 1 for official accreditation bodies in third countries, applies also to this case 3.

For more information on our seminars, courses and certification, follow this link