Guidance in the Certification of Organic Agricultural Products

Guidance in the Certification of Organic Agricultural Products


Organic agriculture observes the principle of recycling to maintain the sustainable use of natural resources, and does not allow the use of synthetic chemicals. The management system must place emphasis on water and soil conservation as well as ecological balance, and must achieve the goal of producing natural and safe agricultural products.

To help develop organic agriculture, the Council of Agriculture has approved four organizations for the certification of organic crop products, the the Mokich Okada International Association (MOA), the Taiwan Organic Production Association, the Tse-Xin Oganic Agriculture Foundation, and the Taiwan Formosa Organic Association, and will also assist them in certification work. Moreover, to make it easier for consumers to identify organic products, the CAS labeling for organic products was put in place besides the labels of the certification bodies.
In 2005, the COA helped six plantations operated by organic agriculture groups to be certified as organic cultivation zones, which cover 191 hectares in total. They conducted five demonstration seminars on production techniques, drawing the attendance of 609 people. Furthermore, the council passed regulations and associated measures pertaining to organic agriculture and conducted eight promotional programs to educate consumers, attracting 994 people. To monitor the quality of organic agricultural products, COA also performed random checks at farms and sales outlets and found 22 cases with chemical residues, a detection rate of 2.48%. These cases were referred to their ruling inspection agencies, county governments and regional agricultural research and field stations to follow up with education and counseling to correct the shortcomings. Related information (including products untested but labeled as organic) was sent to the Health Administration for penalty assessment in accordance with the Food Sanitation Control Law. At the same time, the monitoring results were posted at the Organic Agriculture Information Portal (http://organic.niu.edu.tw), a website sponsored by the Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA), for public reference. By the end of 2005, 1,335 hectares of farmland for organic agricultural production had been certified, including 697 hectares for rice, 343 hectares for vegetables, 152 hectares for fruit, 72 hectares for tea and 71 hectares for other crops.