Apeda’s revised guidelines on organic products ready, to help raise exports

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India’s organic products exports, after dipping from a high of over $900 million in 2020-21, has started picking up this year with 30 per cent jump so far, said Apeda (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) Chairman Abhishek Dev.

He also said the agency is in the process of finalising the revised guidelines under National Programme of Organic Products (NPOP) after a gap of 10 years, which will ease the process for the grower groups to change the certification agency.

“We have taken a number of steps to streamline organic certification and the revised NPOP guidelines will soon be out once the public feedback received by October 14,” Dev told reporters in Delhi.

NPOP Revamp

The first objective is to simplify the language of the NPOP, ensuring greater clarity and eliminating ambiguity, he said. Secondly, transparency is a key focus. Certifying agencies will now be required to make all information about farmers and grower groups publicly accessible on the Apeda website, allowing anyone to verify details through a central link.

Besides, there has been a mobile app developed through which geo-tagging of the locations will be done to verify landholdings of the growers, he added. Each Internal Control System (ICS) office will display the details of the growers’ groups, he said and added that these data will also be shared with local authorities including panchayats and district agriculture office.

Currently, processors and exporters/traders own/manage the ICS, though the external Certification Body inspects it annually. Though separate certificates (Scope and Transaction Certificates) are required to be issued for the ICS, processors and traders have the onus to maintain the traceability of the product flow.

Certification agencies

He also said that admitted enquiry by Apeda in the past found that the local officials were not aware about the growers’ groups. The export development body had initiated enquiry in 2022-23 after organic farmers of Madhya Pradesh had complained of false data about them mentioned in some ICS.

Currently, there are 36 certification agencies operational under NPOP after the Sikkim State Organic Certification Agency was suspended following detection of irregularities in certifying non-organic, non-Basmati rice as organic non-Basmati rice, leading to a sudden jump in export of organic rice. The government on September 28 removed export ban on non-Basmati white rice.

Dev said the total organic export during 2023-24 was 2,61,029 tonnes worth about $495 million (₹4,007.91 crore), in which rice has a major share. Other major organic products that got exported include spice, tea, coffee and soymeal. The organic exports in 2022-23 was 3,12,801 tonnes worth about $708 million (₹5,525.18 crore).

Asked about progress on recognition of NPOP by the US, which was not renewed after July 2022, he said India has been negotiating with Washington on this among other trade issues. The US is also said to be working on to revise its own National Organic Programme. Dev said that currently four agencies are recognised by the US and certification of those agencies are valid for export to the US.