MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE UNITED KINGDOM
REGISTER OF ORGANIC FOOD STANDARDS (UKROFS) (F57)
INTRODUCTION
1. UKROFS, which is an NDPB, reporting to
the Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, was established
in 1987 to establish baseline national organic standards and to
approve and monitor the work of certification bodies. Since 1992
its role has included, and increasingly focused on, that of the
UK authority responsible for ensuring that Community organic standards
are properly implemented.
2. Members of the UKROFS Board (see Annex
A for current membership) are drawn from a range of backgrounds
within the organic sector. They also include consumer representatives
and independent members.
EC REGULATIONS
3. Community legislation[3]
now provides comprehensive standards for organic food production.
This means that the Board's role is now focused on ensuring that
organic certifying bodies correctly interpret and implement this
legislation rather than actually setting standards.
THE CERTIFICATION
SYSTEM
4. Regulation 2092/91 provides for registration
of individual organic operators by private sector certifying bodies,
which is the system in most Member States. (It is also the normal
practice in most third countries.) Where this route is followed,
as in the UK, the Member State designates an authority to monitor
and control the work of these bodies. In the UK, UKROFS fulfils
this role. A body is approved by the authority only if it can
demonstrate that it has administrative competence, has properly
developed control procedures and certifies operators to standards
which are not les than the EU standards. Each approved body is
then inspected at least annually to ensure that the conditions
for approval are maintained.
5. The EC Regulations do not prevent private
sector bodies from applying additional standards if they wish
and the Board of UKROFS has always adhered to the principle that
this is acceptable provided that there is no conflict with UKROFS
standards and Regulation 2092/91. For example, although the Bio-Dynamic
Agriculture Association take the UKROFS standards as their base,
they also have a range of other requirement (use of special preparations,
certain planting times etc) based on the philosophy of Rudolf
Steiner. The Board's view is that if organic farming is to grow
and develop certification arrangements need to accommodate the
wide range of circumstances and views of organic farmers and prospective
organic farmers.
6. UKROFS has recognised eight inspection
bodies as running certification systems which comply with the
EC regulations. Although some observers express surprise at the
number of certification bodies in the UK, this by no means unusual
elsewhere in Europe. For comparison, in October 1999 there were
eight listed in Austria, two in Belgium, 34 in Denmark, four in
Finland, five in France, 22 in Germany, three in Greece, three
in the Irish Republic, eight in Italy, three in Luxembourg, one
in the Netherlands, one in Portugal, 17 in Spain and two in Sweden.
7. For operators who wish to work only to
UKROFS standards, UKROFS operates a direct certification scheme.
This fulfils a requirement in Regulation 2092/91 that Member States
must ensure that certification to the basic EU standards is made
available to those demanding it. In practice, however, the demand
has been limited and only 15 enterprises are currently registered
under this scheme.
8. A list of certifiers is at Annex B.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
OF UKROFS
9. UKROFS has two other functions arising
from Regulation 2092/91. One is the authorisation of imports of
organic produce from third countries (other than six such countries
whose production and control standards have been recognised by
the European Commission as equivalent to Community standards.)
The second is authorising the use in processed foods of minor
agricultural ingredients available only in conventional form.
STANDARDS FOR
ORGANIC LIVESTOCK
10. EC organic standards were substantially
completed with the adoption of rules for organic livestock which
were adopted in August 1999 as Council Regulation 1804/1999 and
came into effect in August this year. Given the diversity of practice
in the Community, the Regulation provided a number of temporary
derogations as well as a facility for Member States to apply stricter
standards to their own producers. UKROFS carefully examined what
use if any it should make of these provisions. It was greatly
assisted in that process by the Organic Livestock Standards Liaison
Group which comprised representatives of the organic certifying
bodies and others active in the organic sector.
11. In arriving at its decisions on these
issues UKROFS has sought to achieve a balance between fostering
competitiveness and avoiding weakening the UK standards of organic
livestock which predated the EC Regulation. In the event the standards
adopted by UKROFS in August differ from the EU standards in three
significant respects only:
— they maintain the requirement that
meat animals (except chicks) must be born and bred on an organic
unit, and not brought in as conventional and converted;
— they maintain specific UK standards
in respect of BSE;
— they provide for a derogation shorter
than is permitted by the EU Regulation for poultry producers to
meet the flock sizes and stocking densities which it prescribes
and limit the producers able to benefit from the derogation.
12. However the Board proposes to review
the standards by the end of their first year of operation in the
light of experience in operating them.
11 October 2000
3 Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2092/91 of 24 June
1991 as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1804/1999. Back
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