International Competence Centre

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Knowledge and learning centre for organic
agriculture

• International Competence Centre
• For Organic Agriculture
• www.iccoa.org

In Technical Cooperation with Research
Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland
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the organic world 2005
from narrow road to express highway
Faster speed
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• The World of
• Organic Agriculture
• 2005
• DR TEJ PARTAP , ICCOA

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Global thinking Organic Agriculture is a
holistic production management system which
promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health,
including biodiversity, biological cycles and
soil biological activity ----- FAO and
IFOAM use this definition
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Worldwide Certified organic farmland 22mh in
over 100 countries 2004
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Organic farmers world wide 2004

• Organic farms/farmers worldwide 55.84 million
  
• Country wise farms/ farmers
• Italy 44,000 India 51,000
• Germany 16,000 China 12,000
• Indonesia 45,000 Japan 45,000
• Mexico 120,000 Thailand 29,000
• Uganda 34,000 UK 40,000
• Peru 20,000 USA 19,000
• Austria 19,000 Swiss 64,000
• Spain 17,000 Cuba 52,000
• Note Share of organics in global farm economy is
  over 2

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Global Organic Leaders

• - North America, Europe, Japan
• - Upcoming leading producers
• China, Brazil and India

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Organic Consumers 2005

• 1. Leading countries ( Av US 50 pc )
• Swiss, Denmark, Sweden, Austria
• 2. In Asia Japan major consumer
• Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea
• do import some organic produce

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Range of Organic International
Trading Companies Quality Management Agencies
Research Institutions
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Organic Certification and Accreditation

• Organic agriculture
• based on the commitment
• of farmers and processors
• to maintain standards
• Worldwide Organic
• Certification bodies 385

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Prevailing types of Organic Standards

• 1. International standards
• - IFOAM/ FAO/ WHO
• 2. Supranational standards
• - EU standards
• 3. National standards
• 4. Private standards
• EU farmers
  association

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IFOAM what is organic ?

• Any system using the methods of
• Organic Agriculture and being based on the
  principles of organic agriculture
• be recognized as Organic Agriculture
• And any farmer
• practicing any such system
• should be called, an organic farmer
• ----- IFOAM position EB 0412

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IFOAM Position-2

• IFOAM supports the adoption of Organic
  Agriculture regardless of whether the products
  are marketed as organic or not
• Because in the opinion of IFOAM
• Organic Agriculture brings valuable contributions
  
• to the farmer and to the society
• outside the market place

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Certification different scenarios and different
solutions

• different farmers,
• different circumstances,
• different markets
• evolving different certification solutions

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1. QAS Third Party Certification (TPC)

• IFOAM feels that it is a reliable tool for
  guaranteeing the organic status of a product,
• when organic farmers are operating in an
  anonymous market.
• Certification is the formal and documented
  procedure by which a third party assures that the
  organic standards are followed

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IFOAM believes believes that TCP

• ---- should be adapted to local conditions -
  ----
• such as,
• Small Holder Group Certification
• Farmers Internal Control System (ICS) i.e. the
  internal inspectors inspect every farm and
  certifying body only audits ICS.

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2. QAS Participatory Guarantee System (PGS)

• Non certified initiatives/ systems, using their
  own written standards ( often based on IFOAM
  standards)
• The methods include
• Relying on affidavits or procedures statements
• Seals from farmers, farmers organisations
• Seals from consumers organisations
• Guarantee provided by the name of a company or
  shop

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3. QAS Direct farmer-consumer relationships

• direct contact between the farmer and the
  consumer- trust maintained without any formal
  certification mechanism
• Direct sales at farm gates / farmers markets
• Box schemes
• Community supported agriculture (CSA)
• Teiki ( Japan) whereby supporters cover part of
  the yearly farm expenses

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4. Quality assuarance systemInformal or non
certified organic

• Subsistence farmers for whom organic
  certification does not have any advantage
• They basically cater to food security of their
  own families or their community
• There are also farmers who reject certification
  on principal or economic grounds

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IFOAM position on Participatory Guarantee Systems

• IFOAM sees a potential in the PGSs and has
  embarked on a process for capacity building and
  further development of such systems.
• It is in their nature that they are localized and
  diverse, so while some general principles can be
  agreed upon they are not standardized to the same
  extent
• as the third party system.

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QAS Challenge Ahead-a

• Recognizing that
• It is not certification that defines organic,
• and also that the situation for farmers is not
  equal and not static.
• i.e. they may first be non certified
• and then go for certification
• Contd .......
• -- Adopted by IFOAM, EB 0412

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QAS Challenge Ahead-b

• Contd...
• .. therefore, IFOAM sees a need
• to find solutions, which are flexible enough
• to allow farmers to move
• from one system to another,
• and facilitating movement of products
• from PGS to TPC system
• but those solutions are not yet there.
• -- Adopted by IFOAM, EB 0412

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QAS Challenge Ahead-c

• IFOAM recognises the fact that
• Organic farming is increasingly delivering
  environmental services to society
• and it is yet to be seen
• which tools are most appropriate
• for verification of those services
• -- Adopted by IFOAM, EB 0412

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Worldwide Organic Experiences

• 1. proving sustainable and diverse
• 2. Organic farmers conserving resources
• 3. Organic farmers producing more
• 4. Organic products offering better market access
  added value opportunities
• 5. Organic agriculture raising self confidence of
  farmers

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Worldwide organic Experiences-2

• 6. Organics mobilizing new forces and
  partnership
• 7. Organic farming a largely private initiative
• 8. Farmers as leading innovators of organic
  farming technologies
• 9. The scientific institutions far behind in
  organic Research and technologies

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Experience with organic consumers their motives
for going organic

• 1. Health, I am eating healthy food
• 2. Animal welfare
• 3. Food as enjoyment, better taste
• 4. Environmental concerns
• 5. Trust in organic
• 6. Specific quality
• 7. Adopted life style, a choice of some

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Organic consumers attitudes

• Strong regional loyalties for organic produce
• projecting regional origins rather than
  national remain key to successful marketing
  strategy
• 2. Highlighting traceability, specific origin/
  area/ farm attracts consumers
• 3. Inverse relationship between organic product
  values and food miles
• longer the distance traveled by OPs, lesser the
  acceptance by org consumers what does it mean
  to Indian exports
• 4. Mountains and Organic brands have strong
  positive relationship

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Organic worldwide Consumer behaviour

• Majority of consumers
• started buying organic products
• following a recommendation from
• family, friends or colleague
• or after seeing
• Excellent marketing advertisement

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Organic marketing experiences

• The myth that good products
• sell by themselves, is unfortunately,
• just a myth
• Without promotion
• the best product or service will be overlooked
• in the flood of offers
• which consumers receive every day

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Experience with Organic quality assurance
system ( CA sys)

• Multiple C A systems
• 1. leading to technical barriers to trade in
  organic items
• 2. Requiring multiple certification procedures
  to be followed for exports
• 3. Increasing bureaucracy costs
• without value addition

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Organic C A Challenges

• Harmonising
• International Basic Standards
• for promoting smooth exports
• making C A an effective tool
• for credible and smooth
• trade marketing worldwide

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Continental perspectives and experiences
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Organic Europe strong moves

• Strong mainstreaming initiatives
• Strong producer and consumer base
• Many public and private initiatives
• Many associations and agencies in place
• EU action plan in place
• EU regulations in place
• Bio Fach IFOAM place
• FiBL providing strong research back up
• CORE ORGANIC ( 2004-007) European transnational
  research program on organic agriculture and food.
• www.organicseeds.com www.organicprints.org

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FiBL, Research Institute of Organic
Agriculture, Switzerland
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Organic Europe Experiences

• Organic production takes place predominantly in
  less favoured areas with below average soil
  fertility
• ----- market policy analysis OMIaRD 2004

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Organic Europe experiences

• 1. When govts gave subsidies for organic farming,
  large numbers of farmers got attracted
• 2. Over supply and less demand situation created
• 3. OPs had to be sold without a price premium as
  ordinary products

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Organic Europe experiences

• 4. Over supply at national level leads to scopes
  for export
• 5. Organic market are small and thus volatile,
  can crash with oversupply
• 6. Danger of market crash due to food scandals
  greater ( caution to Indian organic players)

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Organic Europe experiences

• 7. Longer the distances OPs travel, more doubts
  they create about organic origins
• 8. Greater demand for domestically grown organic
  food because of certainty of origin
• 9. Difficult to build a unique image for organic
  products in foreign countries

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Organic Europe New Agriculture Policy

• Shifting subsidy policy from
• production basis to single farm basis,
• linked to the respect of environment, food
  safety, plant health and animal welfare
  standards,
• as well as the requirement to keep
• farmland in good agriculture and environmental
  condition
• ( cross compliance will become necessary
  element )
• --- a major boost to organic farming

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Latino organica experiences

• Social responsibility in organic agriculture
• Good Water Project, Brazil, investing in organic
  agric in the watersheds for harvesting good
  water
• Redefining old organic knowledge systems
• From my family to your family concept promotion
• Red Agro Ecologicas ( RAE-NGO) home delivery box
  scheme
• CSA- Commune Supported Agriculture system (40C1F)

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Organic African Perspective

• Organic farming in Africa is viewed beyond trade
  frame
• and wider recognition of
• organic farming as a pathway to sustainable
  livelihoods
• on marginal lands
• - ------ GTZ, SDC, STC-UK, BISD-GEF

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Organic Africa

• Conflict and tension between
• Mono disciplinary scientific institutions/ agro
  industry based research priorities
• and
• Research priorities of farming communities for
  sustainable farming and livelihoods

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Organic Asia
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Organic Asia

• China, Japan, India, Indonesia key players
• Asia, certified area 736000 h
• Asia, certified farms 66,000
• Asia, certified wild harvest 2.9 mh

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Organic Asia Scene 2005

• Country Ex/Im Level Gov. Reg
• Japan Importer mainstreaming y
• Korea do do y
• Taiwan do do --
• Malaysia do local sector y
• China exporter local sector y
• Indonesia export local sector -
• India export local sector y

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Organic Asia

• Asian market size US 480m
• Key players- Japan, China, India, Korea
• Key exporter China
• Key importers Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia,
  Singapore

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Organic Asia at Cross Roads

• 1. Organic Agriculture is a development tool for
  poverty reduction, which promotes self reliant
  production ----- Asian NGOs
• 2. Organic agriculture is a future business
  opportunity for both domestic and export market
  
• ------- Business enterprises
• Two perceptions yet to integrate

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Organic Asia key features -1

• Steady but uneven
• growth and development
• for coming few years

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Organic Asia Key Features -2

• 1. More emphasis on SD , RD small farmers
• 2. Less focus on organic market development
• 3. Extension focus (NGOs) on food safety, health
  and cultivation cost reduction
• 4. Non certified production and marketing
• Insignificant Government involvement

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Organic Asia Key Features-3

• Conversion to organic for export
• Organic agenda only as export option,
• not as overall agriculture transformation
• Presence of foreign certifiers
• Few certified products in domestic market
• Organic players not organised regionally

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ORGANIC ASIA key feature-4

• SMOE
• small medium organic enterprises
• Young educated youth, not exactly from farming
  background, opting for organic entrepreneurship
• This younger generation may contribute to a
  significant change in the organic landscape of
  Asia

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Organic Asia key features- 5

• Bazaar diversity from rural India to Tokyo
• Adhoc bazaars local weekly haats
• Small retail shops
• Supermarket shelves
• Multilevel direct selling
• Internet marketing
• Exports

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Organic Asia consumer confusion

• Between
• ORGANIC label
• SAFE FOOD label

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Organic Asia challenges-1

• to improve upon lopsided Governments support,
• focusing on safe food exports
• to organic agriculture
• as key to food safety standards

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Organic Asia challenges-2

• ------ how to sustain expansion in the face of
  
• weak competencies
• for conversion to organic

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Organic Asia threat-1

• inadequate human resources
• to strengthen competencies

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Organic Asia threat--2

• Unbalanced attention
• ----- major focus on standards and
  certification development rather than
• helping develop
• organic production systems and
• market supply chains

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Organic Asiathreat-3

• Key barrier to harnessing of organic
  agriculture potentials
• ---------------------
• Much of organic expertise and experience,
  innovations, successes and failures,
• built by farming communities
• and inaccessible to public domain
• as published literature
• ---------------------------

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Organic Asia barriers to organic consumers

• 1. perceived poor value for money
• 2. Quality aspects
• 3. Availability
• 4. Doubtful organic label- lack of trust and on
  top of that higher prices, not my cup of tea

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some cautionary notesfor organically
developing countries
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Focus on developing markets for successful
organic movement
Organic Farming
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Develop right strategies for supporting the
driving forces

• x

Farmer
Consumer
Market
Developing world organic agriculture- driving
forces
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developing operational marketing system
Marketing mix
Distribution Policy
Promotion Policy
Price Policy
Product policy
Right initiatives in these areas desired
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Developing producer to consumer supply chains

ORGANIC PRODUCERS

Agent
D i r ec t
Processor
Processor
Wholesaler
Wholesaler
Wholesaler
Retailer
Retailer
Retailer
Retailer
ORGANIC CONSUMERS
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Right Organic Marketing Initiatives

• Consumer Care Uppermost
• -----------
• For most consumers the product price is the
  central classification criteria for products
  being interesting or uninteresting to buy

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Bring Improvements in Organic ( CA)
infrastructure

• because CA are tools to enhance
• 1. organic Trade
• 2. organic Market development
• 3. organic consumer confidence

--- it is a crucial issue for India
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future prospects

• in the coming years
• Organic agriculture is going to be
• the hall mark of
• Global trade
• ------ what message for India ?

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Thank you