Organic Standards in Importing Countries: Differences and Similarities

Gunnar Rundgren,
President of IFOAM

There are many similarities between the various organic standards in importing countries. However, there are a number of issues where there are differences which may be of high relevance for exporters. Such issues are among others:

• Definition of conversion period
• Monitoring of conversion periods
• Administrative and management requirements for the operator
• Scope of Regulations
• Inputs
• Seeds
• Parallel production
• Contamination
• Environmental and social aspects
• Labelling

In addition to regulatory standards there are numerous private sector standards which may have more restrictive requirements than the legal level.

Certification bodies increasingly offer a menu of certifications to allow their producers market access to the various markets.

Gunnar Rundgren
Torfolk
SE 68495 Höje
Sweden
Tel.: +46 563 72345
Fax: +46 563 72066
Cellphone: +46 7051 80290
Email: [email protected]

Gunnar is CEO of Grolink, a consultancy service specialised in organic agriculture development. He has been working with organic agriculture for more than twenty years. He established the Torfolk farm together with Kari Örjavik. Grolink's office is located at the farm. Gunnar was one of the founders of KRAV - the certification programme for organic agriculture in Sweden and its General Manager until 1993. He has been involved in IFOAM for many years and is currently the President of the World Board of IFOAM. Previous to that, Gunnar was the founding President of the IOAS.