The “Agricultural Production and Certification Management Bill” Submitted by the Council of Agriculture was finally approved by the Legislative Yuan. The bill approval is a major step towards building a certification and monitor system for both domestic and foreign good quality and organic agricultural products. Under the old guidelines, the Council of Agriculture cannot exercise any administrative control over products labeled as organic. The COA only could increase the frequency of inspections for such products sold in the market. If pesticide residues were found after the inspection, the cabinet-level Department of Health could only penalize the producers according to Article 19 of Food Sanitation Act.

“The Council has contracted out the certification of organic products to four non-profit institutions: Mokichi Okada International Association, Taiwan Organic Production Association, Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation and Taiwan Formosa Organic Association. They are responsible for issuing the certification label and a logo of premium agricultural product for organic food products. Consumers could then find more complete information about the producers from the products’ label.

The Council of Agriculture explained that they will randomly examine all agricultural products on sale in the market labeled as organic. The examination would also cover organic products marked with tags by the four institutions or by the producers themselves. Last year, the Council examined 897 samples of organic vegetable, fruit and rice sold in the market. This figure included 721 certified by those four institutions and others were items that the producers claimed to have produced in organic ways. Pesticide residues were found in 7 out of 721 pieces (0.97%) and 9 out of 176 pieces (5.11%.) This showed that the certification system could guarantee consumers’ rights even more. Organic products that fail this examinations have their certifications rendered invalid and the Department of Health would levy penalties on their producers. Moreover, county and city governments and certification institutions have been asked to urge producers to provide all their organic information when they sell their products in the market products. Furthermore, the Council is coordinating with the Department of Health to establish additional certification management policies and measures on the production, processing, transportation and sale of organic products and implement them.

The Council of Agriculture stressed that the new bill would cover both domestic and imported organic agricultural products, seafood, animal products and processed products. The examination extends to all products that producers claimed to have grown in organic ways. In six months, the Council will announce all related by-laws and guidelines on the management of organic agricultural products.

Article #27 of the new bill stipulates a 2-year buffer period for all organic products sold in the market for producers and food operators to comply with the new passed bill; those who fail will be fined. After that period, the Council would continue monitoring the system operation and urge farmers or products operators to acquire certification earlier. There would then be no room for low quality organic products.

The Council further explained that the promotion of organic agriculture was one of the important items of the Council’s New Agricultural Movement for which many new agricultural policies have been formulated and actively executed. We attempted to set up a better management system to manage the certification services of organic product by replacing the current Operating Guidelines for Management of Organic Agricultural Products with the act governing the agricultural production and certification management because the Council could not take effective action against the violators by the current guidelines. However, before the Bill become effective during the buffer 2-year period the Council would cooperated with the Department of Health to reinforce examination in organic commodities in the market according to Act Governing Food Sanitation to secure consumer rights. Additionally, the Council would actively educate the people the key points of this new Bill and help all parties farmers, processors and consumers gaining the benefits from the development of the organic products.”