The ITF and its work on harmonization and equivalence

The organic market is confronted with hundreds of private sector standards and governmental regulations, two international standards for organic agriculture (Codex Alimentarius and IFOAM) and many certification and accreditation systems. Mutual recognition and equivalency among the systems is extremely limited. The multitude of standards, certification requirements and regulations are considered to be a major obstacle for continuous development of the organic sector, especially for producers in developing countries.

IFOAM, FAO and UNCTAD joined forces to search for solutions to this problem and formed the International Task Force on Harmonization (ITF) in 2003. The Task Force consists of representatives of governments, intergovernmental agencies, and stakeholders from the private sector. The ITF is an open-ended platform for dialog among private and public institutions involved in trade and regulatory activities in the organic agriculture sector. The objective is to facilitate international organic trade and access of developing countries to international organic markets.

From 2003 through 2008 the ITF worked to complete a series of studies and proposals for its objective of helping to reduce organic trade barriers. Two practical tools have been developed to streamline acceptance of products that are traded internationally. One tool is for recognizing organic certification bodies and the other is for determining the equivalency of production and processing standards.

The first tool, International Requirements for Organic Certification Bodies (IROCB), is an international reference norm that can be used by governments and private accreditation and certification bodies as a means of accepting certification of organic products outside of their own system. The second tool, the EquiTool is a set of guidelines, which includes both procedures and criteria that can be used to assist in deciding when a standard applicable in one region of the world is equivalent to a standard applicable in another region.

Now that these tools are available to navigate the maze of the Global Organic Marketplace, are you ready to choose the clearer path?