July 3, 2012

EU to label organic food products

From July 2012, EU member states are required to use a new label for all locally-produced pre-packaged organic food products.

The "Euro-leaf" EU organic logo will not replace other regional, national, or private logos, but will appear alongside them. 

Introduced on July 1, 2010, a two-year transition period was allowed before the logo was compulsory on all products , in order to help operators adapt to the new rules, and to avoid waste of existing packaging. The visual field of the logo shows the code number of the control body and the place of farming of the agricultural raw materials. A recent EuroBarometer report on "European Attitude towards Food Security, Food Quality and the Countryside', to be published shortly, includes information on the EU organic logo and provides the encouraging indication that, since its introduction in July 2010, the logo has already gained recognition among 24% of EU citizens.

"Our hope is that the EU logo can further develop into a widely recognised symbol of organic food production across the EU, providing consumers with confidence that the goods are produced in-line with the strict EU organic farming standards", according to EU Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development, Dacian CioloÅŸ.

The idea of fostering the organic farming sector by introducing a compulsory EU organic logo was backed by Member States in 2007. EU consumption of organic products has seen a steady rise in recent years and now accounts for roughly 2% of the EU market. Production has also increased considerably in the past decade - with roughly 5% of EU agricultural area and more than 2% of farms (more than 200,000 farms) now certified as organic.

In February, the EU also signed an organic equivalence agreement with the US, which will reduce bureaucracy for organic producers in the EU and the US (IP/12/138). In May, the Commission presented a report on the existing organic farming regulation, aimed at opening an Inter-institutional debate with all stakeholders and thus creating the opportunity to explore new ways in which to further improve the EU organic policy framework.