A lot of confusion has been observed in last few months as multiple Certification Bodies or CBs that certify companies/ farmer groups or grower groups and other individual farmers for organic certification have been banned in India.
These CBs,which need to be approved by APEDA(Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) were notably from the EU and US and were banned to provide any sort of certification to vendors exporting organic products because of allowing multiple consignments with higher ETO than accepted pesticide residue value.
To know more about the crisis pertaining to ETO(Ethylene Oxide) in detail, please read out blog - Should you buy Agri raw materials from India ? The Dilemma over Ethylene Oxide?
Which are the Certification Bodies banned by APEDA?
European Committee on Organic Production derecognised five CBs — CU Inspections India, Ecocert India , Indian Organic Certification Agency (Indocert), Lacon Quality Certifications and OneCert International
APEDA followed up the derecognition of the five firms by suspending accreditation to Aditi Organic Certification for a year and banning four others — CU Inspections India , ECOCERT India, Indian Organic Certification Agency (Indocert) and OneCert International — from registering any new organic processor or exporter for organic products certification after some shipments cleared by them failed to meet the norms for ETO presence.
Does that mean that new Vendors certified by these banned CBs not export?
These 5 CBs can still provide USDA NOP certification and therefore if vendor has a NOP certification by a CB registered by USDA Organic, they can export to the US.
For Europe, these vendors would still require a NPOP certificate by another CB registered with APEDA. It would also require for the new CB to be registered on TRACES run by European Committee on Organic Production.
The banned CBs like OneCert recently sent an email to all the vendors with NPOP (Organic certificate for India) saying that they can get a NOC(No objection certificate) from that particular CB to get a TC(Transaction certificate) from their new Certifying body. Once they get the TC from the small certifying body, OneCert will generate another TC under USDA and allow them export their produce to the particular importing country.
Figurative representation of current situation
Still confused about the situation related to organic exports in India? Reach out to us on vaibhavsharma@innoveoexports.com/ rafiq.shaikh@innoveoexports.com and we will directly get in touch with your Certification Body or with APEDA to solve your doubts first hand.
Meanwhile, explore our products at https://www.innoveoexports.com/essential-oils
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