While generally pleased with Canada’s 19 page national organic regulation, the Organic Trade Association worries it will create a mountain of paperwork for importers and exporters.
“I think we’ve done a pretty damn good job of regulating ourselves and I am upbeat about this regulation,” said Stephanie Wells, Canada liaison for the association of 1,650 North American organic businesses.
But the regulation has a few wrinkles that could create an administrative nightmare for the association’s member companies.
Their biggest concern is a clause requiring importers to receive certification from the competent authority in the country of origin stating that the product meets the requirements of Canada’s new regulation.
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“I’m sorry, but if the country of origin is Tanzania or Papua New Guinea, where is the competent authority who is even going to know what Canada’s standards are?”
Wells said the system should work the way it does now, where the product has to be certified by a recognized accreditor.
The import certificate creates unnecessary paperwork for an industry already deluged in forms. There is also a burdensome requirement for an export certificate.
“To have to come up with another piece of paper for the border authorities is madness,” said Wells.
It could lead to long delays, which could prove disastrous for shipments of fresh produce and it would be an administrative nightmare for companies that ship products on a daily basis.
“If you had to provide paperwork for every single shipment of coffee, forests will be destroyed,” she said.
Wells is also concerned about a clause saying that applications for multi-ingredient products must contain a statement setting out the percentage of each of the organic products it contains.
“That amounts to a recipe or a formulation and that is proprietary information,” she said.
Wells said she expects the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to back off on that requirement.
Organic groups are not the only ones raising questions about the new national regulation.
Trish Jordan, spokesperson for Monsanto Canada, wonders how groups like Canadian Organic Growers can preach zero tolerance for GM crops, yet agree to a regulation that says five percent of a product can be non-organic.
“It’s frustrating. How can they have a standard that says five percent and then continue to say that we’ve got zero tolerance on GM?”
Wells said the five percent leeway is for non-organic ingredients like conventional baking powder and spices, not GM crops.
According to the national standard, growers are forbidden from knowingly cultivating GM crops, although the document sets out no limits for accidental contamination.
“We aren’t looking for zero tolerance because we know it will put people out of business,” said Wells.
There is no testing for GM contamination in the regulation, but buyers can spot check to ensure shipments are GM-free.
“If I were buying I would probably want to do that,” said Wells.
