According to a federal government cost-benefit analysis, nearly everyone will profit from a proposed new organic regulation.
Producers will maintain access to the European Union.
Processors will experience increased domestic sales.
And consumers will be able to have faith that what they are buying is truly organic.
But deep in the analysis it is revealed that at least one group may feel the pinch of a new regulation. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency expects several certifiers will disappear. Canada has 30 certification bodies. Once the regulation becomes law, many of those will be gone.
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“Our working assumption is that (under the new regulation) there will be 14 to 16 accredited certification bodies operating in Canada,” said the CFIA’s analysis.
Rusty Plamondon, president of the Saskatchewan Organic Certification Association Inc., a small certifier based out of Tisdale, Sask., said contraction is inevitable.
“There is going to be some, I can see that, because of the cost.”
At present, certification bodies can receive accreditation from five agencies operating in Canada, but the CFIA expects that will shrink to three once the regulation becomes law.
Plamondon said the Saskatchewan Organic Certification Association, or SOCA, explored the idea of getting accredited by the Standards Council of Canada, which will be one of the three remaining accreditation agencies, but the $50,000 fee was too steep.
“There’s no way that we could afford that. The members weren’t going to pay that kind of money to get it.”
Instead, the group has amalgamated with Ecocert Canada, a larger certification body based out of Quebec that is accredited by the Counseil des Appellations Agroalimentaire du Quebec, another accreditation agency expected to make the cut.
“That’s how it is shaping up to be and I think it’s going to happen that way with a few more,” said Plamondon.
The CFIA anticipates between 250 and 500 organic farmers will have to seek certification from a different organization as a result of the mergers and attrition.
He said it has been an easy transition for SOCA’s members, who now face fewer inspections and in some cases cheaper annual fees due to the association with a more internationally recognized accreditation body.
“It is working out pretty good for everybody,” Plamondon said.
Paddy Doherty, chair of the industry’s Organic Regulatory Committee, said there is some concern about certifier attrition in the Maritimes, where certification tends to be a little more ad hoc, but for the most part it is not a big issue.
“Under the new regime there will be plenty of certification bodies,” he said.
