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Organic Certifications

Organic standards and Certification

India has evolved the national standards for organic products keeping in view the traditional with the scientific approach. These standards are ion conformity to the international standards of the European Union Movements (IFOAM).

Government of India has identified six Accreditation Agencies for certification or organic products. They are APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, GoI), Tea Board, Coffee Board, Spices Board, Coconut Development Board and Directorate of Cashew and Cocoa Board under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. These Accreditation Agencies will strive to achieve a socially beneficial goal through the certification programmes combined with a collective quality symbol. Based on the criteria drawn for accreditation, the Accreditation Agencies in turn would identify the inspection and certifying agencies for accreditation of their certification programme. They will operate certification programmes in the following areas:

 

1. Organic production

2. Organic processing

3. providing test standards

Inspections will be carried out by the accredited inspection and certifying agencies at all stages of production and processing with regular check on all operators (farmers and processors) in accordance with the principles in the basic standards.

Organic products produced under the national standards would be certified and approved by the accredited inspection and certifying agencies for labeling as “India Organic”. The labeled products would provide the consumer with the best possible guarantee of organic origin, production, processing and packaging (Gouri, 2004). The basic standards are provided in the pages to follow. The following foreign certification agencies have been accredited for certification by APEDA.

 

1. IMO, Switzerland

2. Eco-Cert, Germany

3. Skal, the Netherlands

SGS, Switzerland