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Organic Food From Europe To Hit US Grocery Aisles in June

  • Spence Cooper
  • February 17, 2012

The U.S. and European Union have announced a reciprocity of organic standards. Whatever is considered organic in the U.S. will now also be recognized as organic in Europe, and vice versa.

Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, made the announcement recently at a trade show of the organic industry in Germany.

The new agreement will allow products including meat, cereals and wine that receive organic certification in one region to automatically be labelled and sold as organic in the other.

According to Reuters, the agreement covers all agricultural products apart from fish and seafood but excludes any goods that use antibiotics during production, which means that some EU-produced meat and U.S. apples and pears will not qualify.

According to Organic Monitor, a marketing and information services company that specializes on the international organic food industry, the global market for organic products was valued at $59 billion in 2010, and annual sales growth remained healthy, despite a slowdown in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The European Commission says together the EU and United States account for 90 percent of global organic consumption.

“This agreement between the two biggest markets in organic production can have a positive impact on the development of organic agriculture around the world,” Dacian Ciolos, EU agriculture commissioner, told Reuters.

“It will also be good for our consumers, because by reducing bureaucracy with this agreement we can also reduce costs, especially transactional costs.”

The chief agricultural negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative, Isi Siddiqui, said the agreement would particularly benefit smaller organic producers by reducing costs.

Organic Food From Europe To Hit US Grocery Aisles in June“Larger operations can compete quite easily, but I think that this deal will make it easier for small and medium-sized organic producers to access new markets, because we are removing those barriers,” he said.

Reuters points out rules on organic farming in Europe and the U.S. virtually prohibit the use of synthetic chemicals in crop production, ban the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and promote livestock practices specifically adapted to an animal’s natural behavior.

Merrigan claimed that arriving at this mutual decision involved getting over some prejudices.

“Many Europeans had the feeling that U.S. standards were probably too permissive for the benefit of big organic agribusiness. U.S. officials, for their part, didn’t think the Europeans did enough verification to make sure farmers actually follow the rules.”

NPR notes one significant exception. “In Europe, organic farmers who work with animals are allowed to treat illnesses with antibiotics. In the U.S., they aren’t, and that prohibition will remain. No meat or milk from animals treated with antibiotics can be imported and sold in the U.S. as organic.”

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