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It was over a year ago the Wall Street Journal broke the news about fraudulent organic grain imports from Turkey. The event serves as a wake-up call for the entire organic industry and highlights the challenge of protecting the integrity of the organic brand. In response, numerous organic certificates have been revoked from many of the offending exporters and discussions are active on improving the way enforcement is performed.
The National Organic Program (NOP) recently issued an Enforcement Action Plan that outlines recommended changes intended to make to help mitigate fraud and protect farmers in the marketplace, with fumigation high on the list.
Some commodities from specific countries are regularly fumigated as a condition of entry into the U.S. This is done by Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and in the past APHIS didn’t interface with the NOP or certifiers when an organic shipment was fumigated.
Methyl bromide and ionizing radiation often used in fumigation are strictly prohibited in organic production. Since brokers are exempt from certification they were sometimes unaware of the issue and let the shipments go through.
To remedy the situation APHIS has provided data related to product fumigation, allowing the NOP to identify commodities from specific countries that are regularly fumigated as a condition of entry into the U.S. As a result, NOP has requested targeted investigations by certifiers.
APHIS also led a training session for organic certifiers on how to access APHIS fumigation rules and NOP is conducting data analysis to identify the commodities and countries most frequently involved.
Getting APHIS and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to talk to each other about organic is not an easy task. It’s not currently possible for APHIS and CBP to identify incoming shipments as organic- they lack the data sets. All three agencies recently met, and NOP requested that organic data sets be made in the future.
NOP is increasing the number of inspections and amount of testing that certifiers are performing in high-risk countries. NOP staff will travel to conduct on-site audits of certifier offices around the world.
The NOP is also considering the following improvements to strengthen organic certification control systems:
- Introduction of a federated organic certificate;
- Implementing organic certification expiration dates;
- Requiring separate accreditation for certifier satellite offices;
- Clarification of grower group requirements; and
- Specifications of inspector and reviewer qualification and training requirements.
They are also exploring new technologies such as block chain, to better manage data and verify product movement across international supply chains.
NOP’s commitment to the organic community is clear in their memo. “Trust is the key to building and maintaining successful brands, organizations and partnerships."
For the organic industry, the USDA organic label creates the foundation for that trust. Our top priority is protecting the value of the organic label – a value that is directly related to our collective ability to effectively trace products across the supply chain, ensure the integrity of organic products and take rigorous enforcement actions to deter fraud,” the memo states.
You can read the full announcement here.
