NGOs urge FSSAI to defer regulation on organic foods certification

Over 90 civil society groups and NGOs have asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to defer its regulation regarding enforcement of the Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) as there is no preparedness for organic certification in the country.
Even as the government is promoting organic farming, the civil society groups said that the insistence on certification for which there is no preparedness, was pushing a bulk of local farmers out of the circuit.
“The process is tedious and very expensive,’’ they said in a letter to FSSAI, adding that local trade in organic foods be exempt from certification.
Certification can be obtained from government as well as in private sector but the online requirements are long-drawn, comprehensive and “impossible’’, the NGOs said.
On April 2, the FSSAI issued direction to its enforcement wing that the original regulation for compulsory certification may be treated as “enabling regulations’’ and not be considered for prosecution (of uncertified organic producers) till April 1, 2020.
In a letter to the CEO of FSSAI, the NGOs said that while a review of this regulation will take place in six months, a large number of organic food producers and producer organisations were not registered and this needs to be taken into account along with the reasons thereof.
They said the exemption regulation does not apply to organic food retail companies which means that it would in effect continue to affect marketing opportunities for thousands of uncertified organic farmers.
The NGOs demanded that the regulation against uncertified organic farmers be deferred and local trade be exempt from regulation altogether. Small farmers in north-eastern states, hilly and tribal regions sell their produce in local markets.
Among the signatories are Alliance for Holistic and Sustainable Agriculture, Organic Farmers Collective, Uttarakhand, Sree Vrindavan, Chennai, Nagpur Beejotsav Group, Kudrati Kisan Haat, Jalandhar, Asal Ahmedabad, Jivit Mati Kisan Samiti, Bihar and Organic Ubuntu, Delhi.