Certification bodies: Almost 400 organic certifiers in more than 70 countries

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In the 2003 issue of The ‘Organic Certification Directory,’ published by the Organic Stan- dard2_{, 364 organizations were listed as offering organic certification services. In 2004, we} listed 385. The number reached 419 organizations in 2005. The directory now contains 395 entries. The decline in the number is due to changes in the Japanese organic regulation and a requirement for re-registration of certification organizations. This led to a decline from 69 to 35 organizations.

The majority of the certification bodies are located in the EU, US, Japan, China, Canada and Brazil. Many of the listed certification organizations are also operating outside their home country. Most of them are based in a developed country and also offer their certification services in developing countries. Very few are operating in several developed countries, for example, there is not one single EU based certification body offering its services in the US, even when they have the required NOP accreditation. A handful of certifiers operate on several or all the continents. 71 countries have a home-based certification organization. Most of Africa and big parts of Asia still lack local service providers. There are only eight certification bodies in Africa: in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Egypt. Asia has 93 certification bodies, most of them based in China, India or Japan.

Table 5: Number of Certification Bodies

2006 2005 2004 2003

Africa 8 7 9 7

Asia 93 117 91 83

Europe 160 157 142 130

Latin America & Caribbean 43 43 33 33

North America 80 84 97 101

Oceania 11 11 11 10

2 _{The Organic Standard is an international monthly journal that enables individuals and organizations to be kept up-} to-date with developments concerning worldwide standards and certification issues in the organic sector.

The number of organizations in China has continued to grow, albeit at a lower pace than previous year. There are now 32 organic certification organizations in China, up from 26 in 2005 and just six in 2004. The highest number is reported from the US, even though there is one less this year than previous year.

Number of organic certification bodies

Country Number of certification bodies US 59 Japan 35 China P.R. 32 Germany 31 Spain 26 Canada 21 Brazil 18 Italy 16 India 11 United Kingdom 10

Certification bodies were asked for information about the number of operators they certify. 200 responded, giving a total of 152’000 operators. When it comes to the number of farm- ers, 149 gave an answer. They certified in total 377’000 farms, with IMO’s head office alone reporting more than 65’000 and their office in Latin America 30’000. BioLatina certified 20’000 farms, up from 14’000 in 2005. Naturland reports 40’000 farms and Certimex 30’000 farms. Ceres, a recently established certification organization based in Germany already certifies 15’000 farmers. It should be noted that the same farm can be certified twice, e.g. many Naturland certified farmers are also IMO certified as the two organizations cooperate closely. Nevertheless, the total number of certified farms is likely to be more than of half a million.

Most organizations still decline to be transparent regarding their turnover. Only 66 organi- zations responded. Many report figures in the range of 100’000 to 500’000 Euros. Bio Suisse and Soil Association are heavyweights when it comes to turnover, with more than five million Euros. The total turnover of the three Swiss-based organizations Bio Suisse, IMO and bio.inspecta reached eleven million Euros. Similarly, ICEA, CCPB, Suolo and Salute from Italy report more than ten million Euros together. Other organizations reporting turnover between two and five million include Qualité France, DIO (Greece), Skal (Nether- lands) and Debio (Norway).

Of those 273 that responded to the question concerning the starting date of their operation, only six started before 1985, while 62 percent started after 1997.

1985-1990 12% 1991-1996 24% 1997-2002 36% 2003-2006 26% Before 1985 2%

Figure 31: Development of organic certification bodies

The graph shows how many of the 273 organic certification bodies who responded to the TOS sur- vey were founded in which time period.

Source: The Organic Standard (TOS)

Table 6: Certification bodies and accreditation status

Total Appro- val IFOAM Japan ISO 65 EU US Africa 8 3 Asia 93 4 35 11 12 2 Europe 160 13 13 73 135 32

Latin America & Caribbean 43 5 1 15 6 11

North America 80 6 9 24 0 62 Oceania 11 4 6 3 7 5 Sum 2006 395 32 64 129 160 112 Sum 2005 419 31 100 113 143 115 Sum 2004 385 30 95 96 132 112 Sum 2003 364 26 81 74 112 106

The number of organizations that have ISO 65 accreditation shows an increase and is now close to one third of all organizations. 14 of the organizations have ISO 65 accreditation from the DAP German Accreditation System1 _{and seven from the International Organic} Accreditation Service (IOAS)2_{. TOS does not verify the claims of ISO 65 accreditation, and} the real number is probably lower. The number of organizations approved in Japan has dropped as a result of a changed system. The EU has 160 approved bodies, with 24 non-EU based bodies recognized within its system. This is a big increase from 2005, mainly a result of the fact that India has been put on the list of approved third countries, adding eleven organizations. The majority of imports into the EU come through certification granted under article 11.6 (i.e. the importer’s derogation). Under that system, import authorizations were granted from 108 countries in 2005.

Only five organizations have all five approvals, the same as in 2005.