New Organic Regulations For EU: The Sector With 21 Percent Growth
After 18 trilogues (yes, more than two parties involvement)—meetings where the three EU institutions namely ‘the European Commission’, ‘Council’, and ‘Parliament negotiate’—parties reached an agreement on a new regulation for the organic sector. The regulation would replace Regulation ‘834/2007’. Prior to this, the agreement must receive formal approval from the Council and the European Parliament; a vote is expected in the Council on November 20, and in the Parliament at the beginning of next year. The EU organic sector has experienced strong growth in recent years, 21 percent from 2010 - 2015, and represents an estimated 6.2 percent of the total EU agricultural area (Eurostat 2015).
Negotiations were very lengthy and contentious. In fact, EU legislators held more trilogues for regulatory reform of the organic sector than efforts to reform the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy for 2014-2020, which programmed 400 billion dollars for the EU’s agricultural sector. Several of the EU Member States (MS) voiced scepticism on the need for new organic regulations, given that the existing regulation has been operational for less than ten years. After the U.S., the German organic food market is the second largest organic market in the world. Sales of organic food in Germany have steeply increased in recent years, peaking in 2015 with organic food sales reaching over 8.6 billion Euros.
In the European press, Germany appears to be withdrawing support for the organic regulation overhaul, but policy analysts believe, there will be enough votes to pass the final agreement; the vote is expected to be very close. If passed, the new regulation would be applied from 1st January, 2021.
The Changes
The main modifications of the current EU organic legislation are likely to be: Organic trade will ultimately be regulated by trade agreements; Auditing controls on EU organic operators would be partially risk-based and, in most cases, would be reduced to every other year; EU members (MS) exemptions/ derogations from the EU-wide regulations will be slowly phased out; Demarcated beds for EU organic production will be allowed only for Northern MS and for a limited time.
A cornerstone of the Commission’s original proposal was to introduce pesticide residue level limits for pesticides that are not allowed under the organic regulations. However, many EU organic farmers opposed this provision noting how difficult it is to fully prevent exposure from pesticides unapproved in organic production, originating from sources outside their control, e.g., drift from neighboring farms under conventional production.
Some Difficult Aspects to Manage
Pesticide Thresholds:
The Most Difficult Issue to Resolve: The most contentious issues embedded in the Commission’s original 2014 proposal for reforming organic regulations were the tolerance levels for residues of non-authorized pesticides. The Commission had sought to decertify organic products found to have these residues. Thus, if an organic producer operating adjacent to conventional farms experienced pesticide drift from those farms that left a residue on the organic product, his or her organic product would have to be sold as conventional and not organic one, with a clear loss of value for the organic producer.
Mixed Farms:
Another key element of the initial Commission’s proposal was a ban on “mixed farms”: farms undertaking both conventional and organic agriculture. Parliament and Council negotiators watered down the Commission proposal and agreed to maintain the possibility for farmers running mixed farms, but with the condition that their conventional farming activities are clearly and effectively separated and differentiated from organic farming ones.
Mandatory Soil-Bound Organic Production Sows Divisiveness
The Commission also put forward a proposal to ban organic production in demarcated beds so as to facilitate soil improvement and robust ecological systems through all organic production. Organic ornamental plants in pots, as well as herb production, would be exempted from the soil-bound clause. Denmark, Finland, and Sweden vociferously objected to the Commission’s ban as those countries have some organic production in demarcated beds, primarily for accommodating climatic and geological conditions.
