News: Development and Cooperation
Workshop on how to reduce fraud & irregularities in organic trade
(October 28, 2008) On November 25 and 26, 2008, a meeting to discuss and finalize a Code of Conduct to reduce fraud and irregularities in organic trade will take place in Hamburg, Germany. Target groups are CEOs and quality managers of responsible companies trading in organic products like importers, processors, wholesalers, brand owners, retailers. The workshop is a follow-up of the workshop Dealing with Frauds in Organic Production held October 2 and 3, 2007 in Frick and is organized by Gesellschaft für Resourcenschutz GFRS, AgroEco and FiBL.
- Further information: Workshop details
- Contact: Beate Huber, FiBL, CH-Frick
LibanCert/Quacerta launches ISO65 accreditation
(October 6, 2008) The Lebanese organic certification body, LibanCert, launched its ISO 65 accreditation by IOAS, the International Organic Accreditation Service, on October 6, 2008 in Beirut. LibanCert is now offering full certification services for exports to the European Union. The accreditation also covers the recently established internationally operating branch, Quacerta, which is offering its services in the Arab region, e.g. Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
LibanCert was founded in November 2005 and is managed by a trilingual team of agronomists with long-standing experience in organic agriculture. LibanCert operates under the umbrella of the American University of Beirut, with the support of the Swiss government and FiBL, the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture.
- Press release: LibanCert/Quacerta launched its ISO65 accreditation
- Contact: Roula Farès, General Manager, LibanCert SARL, Tel/Fax +961 1 28 23 49 , Mobile +961-3 47 52 51, e-mail: roula@libancert.com, Website: www.libancert.com
Second Round Table of the Eastern European countries to take place in November in Kyiv, Ukraine
(October 6, 2008) The Second Round Table of the Eastern European countries “Organic Agriculture and Legal Framework” will be held in Kyiv on November 5 and 6, 2008 hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture of Ukraine.
The Round Table explores opportunities of organic agriculture for Eastern Europe and the possibilities of governments for facilitating the development by establishing legal frameworks and providing support measures. Among the speakers are Yuriy Melnyk, Minister of Agriculture of Ukraine, Urs Niggli, Vice President of IFOAM and Director of FiBL, Manuel Etter, Country director of the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine COOF, Marek Sawicki, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Poland, Jiri Urban, Vice Minister of Agriculture of Czech Republic and Herman Van Boxem, EU Commission, Agriculture and rural development Directorate-General.
The Round Table is organized by FiBL in the frame of Swiss-Ukrainian project “Organic certification and market development in Ukraine” financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO and according to the annual plan of the National Association of Agricultural Advisory Services of Ukraine Dorada, financed by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ukraine and with support of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine.
The meeting is a follow up of the Regional Co-operation among authorities in South Eastern Europe meeting, held in Skopje, FYR Macedonia in December 2007.
- Contact: Beate Huber, FiBL, Frick, Switzerland
- Meeting in December 2007: Regional Co-operation among authorities in South Eastern Europe
India Organic Seminar 2008
(September 5, 2008) The International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture ICCOA is organizing the fourth India Organic Seminar "Global Organic Agribusiness: India Arrives". The seminar accompanies the India Organic Trade Fair. The Seminar is organized in cooperation with international and national organizations, including the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL. It will be held at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Dehli, November 27-29, 2008. More
OrganicXseeds is now the official database in Bulgaria
(June 9, 2008) According to the EU Regulation on organic farming, European Union Member States must ensure that a database is established in which organic seed and seed potatoes can be registered. Recently, the Bulgarian Government decided to adopt the user-friendly internet database called “organicXseeds”, set up by FiBL. OrganicXseeds is already recognized as the official database in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This database, now complemented with a Cyrillic version, handles about 10,000 seed products and has more than 1,000 visitors a week. More
GMO residues in organic produce: Course in Frick, Switzerland, November 2008
(January 16, 2008) Organic farming abstains from the use of genetically modified organisms. However, GMOs can inadvertently contaminate organic foods through pollen dispersal, bought-in feeds, or cooperatively used machinery for transport, storage or processing. GMO residues in organic production are a sensitive topic. Therefore, inspection bodies and operators need tools and concepts to handle cases of adventitious presence of GMOs in organic products. FiBL is offering a course from November 4 to 6, 2008, for personnel of inspection bodies and operators (food processing industry or farmers). Info/Registration
Security in the Organic Certification; Workshop Documents now available
(15.11.2007) The summary of the discussion among 60 experts at the first European workshop on the prevention of fraud, held on 2 and 3 October 2007, are now available at the FiBL homepage. More
Complementary training manuals for organic agriculture in the tropics
(June 18, .2007) In 2004 the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) published a first training manual for organic agriculture in the Tropics (the Basic Manual). It immediately found wide acceptance.
Now, FiBL and partners of the organic movement in the tropics completed two complementary training manuals, one for the arid and semiarid tropics and one for the humid tropics. More
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