Organic Agriculture Development and Certification Schemes

With the global rise in demand for organic agriculture, various certification schemes are available to ensure the quality and standards conformity of agricultural products. Jack GE, VP of Kaixin Certification, answers our questions around this topic, and more specifically about the differences between Organic Product Certification and GAP Certification.

What is the current status of the development of global organic agriculture?

According to the latest survey data of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in 190 countries and regions around the world, the area of organic agricultural land and retail sales of organic agricultural products continues to grow and is reaching record highs again (2020 data1).

The global organic farmland area exceeds 74.9 million hectares (including land in the conversion period), of which Australia has the largest organic farmland area. The two continents with the largest organic farmland area are Oceania (35.9 million hectares, accounting for about half of global organic farmland area) and Europe (17.1 million hectares, 23%). The global organic agricultural area increased by 3 million hectares in 2020, a growth rate of 4.1%, with increases in organic agricultural land on all continents. In 2020, there were at least 3.4 million organic producers worldwide. Of these, 56% of organic producers are located in Asia, followed by Africa (24%), Europe (12%) and Latin America (8%). In 2020, the total area of organic agricultural land in Asia exceeded 6.1 million hectares, and there were about 2 million organic agricultural producers, most of them in India. The countries with the largest areas of organic agricultural land are India (2.7 million hectares) and China (more than 2.4 million hectares).

The global organic market sales have exceeded 120 billion euros. In 2020, the countries with the largest organic product markets are the United States (49.5 billion euros), Germany (15 billion euros) and France (12.7 billion euros).

Can you please detail what are Organic Product Certification and GAP Certification?

Organic and GAP certification are 2 mainstream sustainable agricultural certification schemes.

• Organic product certification refers to the evaluation of organic product production and processing in accordance with organic product standards and regulations
• GAP certification is a set of conformity assessment activities for a set of normative systems to ensure the production safety of primary agricultural products.

What are the differences between those two certification schemes?

The main differences between organic product certification and GAP certification are:

1. Certified product

Organic certification and GAP certification have different product categories:

a. GAP certification is only for primary agricultural product certification and does not involve processing (except tea).

b. GAP certification has no restrictions on livestock breeding, both indoors and outdoors. For example, chickens in cages can be certified by GAP, but organic certification cannot be carried out; GAP certification does not require breeding density for livestock breeding, while organic certification does.

c. All Chinese herbal medicines can be certified as organic, but only Chinese herbal medicines with the same source of medicine and food can be certified by GAP.

d. For livestock and poultry with by-products, such as dairy cows, GAP only issues certificates for cows, not milk. Organic can issue both cows and milk certificates. The same is true for laying hens.

2.Input

Organic production has very strict requirements on inputs. The use of chemically synthesized pesticides and fertilizers is prohibited, and the use of genetic engineering technology in organic production or the use of genetic engineering technology on organic products is also prohibited while GAP certification restricts the use of chemically synthesized pesticides, which can be used after national registration. Pesticides licensed and approved for use in growing crops, no requirements for the use of chemical fertilizers, and the use of genetically modified products is allowed.

3. On-site inspection timing and duration

a. Organic must be inspected at the high-risk stage like planting of the crop, and the process needs to be seen; the initial GAP certification must be conducted in the harvest period, and recertification can be in the crop growing season. If there is product processing, it is necessary to ensure that the product processing site is seen at least once every two years.

b. GAP certification requires that the on-site inspection duration of the base should not be less than 3 hours, and the organic certification depends on the specific situation.

4. Management systems and internal auditors

a. Organic certification must establish a management system, GAP certification does not require the establishment of a management system.

b. Organic certification has no requirements for the academic qualifications and majors of internal inspectors; GAP has academic qualifications and professional requirements for internal auditors, who must be majors in crops, livestock, poultry, aquatic products and bees in colleges, and have more than 2 years of professional experience (2 years of quality management experience for internal auditor is accepted as well).

5. Registration Number

There is no registration number for organic certification. After the application for GAP certification is accepted, a registration number will be issued, and the registration number is unique.

6. Unannounced audits

Organic certification conducts unannounced inspections on at least 5% of certified organizations every year; the unannounced inspections of each module of GAP certification is 10%.

7. Use of the logo

Products marked as organic need to attach an organic traceability tag on the packaging. The GAP certification mark is divided into primary certification mark and secondary certification mark, and the unique registration number should be marked under the certification mark.

To learn more about these schemes and how Cotecna can support you in your certification process, please contact us.

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For over 50 years, we have been supporting agriculture, food and pharma, minerals and metals, and consumer products supply chains all over the world. We provide testing, inspection, and certification services to help our clients navigate evolving regulations, ensure product compliance, and support their sustainability journey.