Australia
August 24, 2006
Regulation of organic foods in
Australia and New Zealand - Incorporating management of an
organic standard
A concept paper put forward by
Biological Farmers of Australia
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This concept paper aims to follow
on from the Discussion Paper “An Organic Standard for Australia,
Industry at the Crossroads – Are we Asleep at the Wheel” put out
by Biological Farmers of
Australia (BFA) in July 2006.
AQIS has for some time now
indicated that it intends to discontinue both its National
Organic Standard secretariat role, and its Competent Authority
role, perhaps as early as next year. This is due to changes with
the European Union (EU), where they have indicated that they
will allow direct accreditation of certification organizations,
similar to the US and Japan.
The Biological Farmers of
Australia (BFA) board is of the strong opinion that the organic
sector in Australia needs to move quickly to ensure a continuity
of arrangements, so that exports of organic produce are not
compromised into the future. At the same time there is an
opportunity to address the failure of both Australian and New
Zealand governments, to properly regulate the words organic and
biodynamic. Firstly, the BFA board is of the opinion that the
organic sector should form a view on whether AQIS should
discontinue its Competent Authority role. Having said that, if
AQIS does withdraw its role, then there appears to be only two
options available. One
option is to form an independent organic sector body to take
over the role of Competent Authority . This would require
agreement from the EU and could be for example, the Organic
Certifiers of Australia (OCA)1. The other option is for the
organic sector to outsource this role to a group like the Joint
Australia New Zealand Accreditation Service (JAS-ANZ).
Secondly, in relation to the
organic standard, both OCA and BFA representatives met with
Standards Australia in early August to discuss the Organic
Federation of Australia (OFA) application for an organic
standard to be developed by Standards Australia. This meeting
confirmed that Standards Australia would not allow mandatory
inspection or certification to remain in the standard. The BFA
board does not support the development of an organic standard
without mandatory certification and inspection, and urges
Standards Australia to cease any further work on its
development. It is evident to the BFA that the organic sector
majority view is consistent with the BFA view rather than the
OFA view.
To further address the regulation
of the words organic and biodynamic, the BFA board has developed
a concept proposal that delivers full regulation within
Australia and New Zealand, via an organic labeling rule in the
Food Standards Code with Food Standards Australia New Zealand
(FSANZ). This will be no easy task given that
Government prefers minimum regulation. It will take coordinated
and persistent lobbying by the organic sector on both sides of
the Tasman. However the BFA board strongly believes it is well
worth the effort. Full regulation will give us an enormous boost
in consumer confidence to grow our sector significantly faster
than now.
Until such time as FSANZ agrees to
regulate the words organic and biodynamic, the BFA board
believes that the organic sector in Australia should take over
ownership and management of the organic standard, possibly
through the Organic Certifiers of Australia. In addition, the
BFA board urges the organic sector to move quickly to address
the impending withdrawal of AQIS from its role as Competent
Authority .
The BFA believes it is time for
all organizations in Australia to put competitive differences
aside, and come together to seek collective solutions to these
issues. The BFA proposes that the organic sector progress the
resolution of these issues through organic sector round tables
over the next twelve months.
1 The Organic Certifiers of
Australia comprise four organic sector organisations who offer
certification services to
more than 2000 clients out of a total of approximately 3000
operators covered in
Click
HERE for the full paper
http://www.bfa.com.au/_files/Regulation%20of%20Organic%20Foods%20in%20Australia%20and%20NZ.pdf
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