Summary
The UK will continue to recognise EU issued organic certification until the end of 2021. This will avoid any loss of commercial value on ACP exports to the UK market arising from the lapsing of the validity of organic certification issued by EU27 based agencies. The issue of the lapsing of EU recognition of UK issued organic certification from 1st January 2021 however remains unresolved, with an ACP coordinated political initiative in this regard now urgently needed. The UK will however, need to move over to a system of manual organic import controls, given the lapsing of UK access to the EU TRACES system from 1st January 2021, with this potentially causing delays and increasing the administrative cost of clearing organic products through UK border controls.
On 26th October 2020 as part of notification on food labelling requirements after 1st January 2021 (1) the UK government updated a notification on the trading and labelling of organic foods. This notification highlighted how in the absence of an ‘equivalency’ agreement with the EU on the certification of organic products, UK exporters will ‘not be able to export organic food or feed to the EU’ unless individual UK product control bodies are ‘authorised by the EU to certify UK goods for export to the EU’ (2) (see companion epamonitiring.net article, ‘Implementation of New EC Organic Products Regulation Postponed but Unresolved Brexit Issue Threatens Commercial Gains of ACP Organic Production’, 15 October 2020).
However, in order to accelerate the process of securing an equivalency agreement on certification of organic products the UK government announced it will ‘recognise the EU as equivalent for the purpose of trade in organics until 31 December 2021’ and hence ‘food and feed registered as organic in the EU will continue to be accepted as organic in the UK until 31 December 2021’ (2).
This means that for 3rd country organic suppliers to continue to export to the UK they must either: ‘apply for approval from Defra before importing; be registered with an EU Organic Certification Body’; and ‘have a Certificate of Inspection for the food’ to be imported and placed for sale as an organic product (3).
This means that throughout 2021 ACP exporters can continue to export to the UK on the basis of organic certification issued by EU27 organic certification agencies, de facto extending the current arrangements, despite the UK’s formal departure from the EU regulatory regime after 31st December 2020.
However, the notification also highlighted how when importing organic produce into the UK from 1st January 2021, such trade will no longer be able to make use of the ‘EU’s Trade Control and Expert System New Technology (TRACES NT)’, rather use will have to be made of ‘an interim manual UK organic import system from 1 January 2021’ (3). Details of the forms to be used in the UK manual organic import system can be obtained from the relevant product control board in the UK (4).
The importance of this issue lies in the phenomenal growth in organic sales in the UK which has taken place over the first nine months of 2020 and the growing role ACP exporters are playing in the trade in organic products into the EU28 market. In terms of growth in organic sales in the UK, up to 3rd October 2020 sales increased 9.5%, compared to a 4.5% for the whole of 2019 and a growth in non-organic sales up to October 2020 of 6.6% (5). In terms of the role of the ACP as a supplier of organic products in 2019 some 45 ACP countries collectively accounting for 17.1% of total EU organic imports, with ACP export volumes having grown almost 26% compared to 2018 (see companion epamonitoring.net article ‘Dominican Republic and Bananas Dominate ACP Organic Products Exports to the EU28’, 18 August 2020).
| Comment and Analysis The 26th October announcement means ACP organic product exporters who currently use organic certification issued by an EU27 organic certification body, will be able to continue to use the current EU27 certification when exporting to the UK throughout 2021. This will avert any loss of commercial value by ACP exporters supplying the UK market on the basis of organic certification issued by an EU27 organic certification body. Such losses would arise if such ACP exporters were no longer allowed to place their products for sale on the UK market as organic products, as a result of the lapsing of the validity of EU27 issued certification. This is a particularly problematical issue at the moment, given the constraints faced in securing UK specific organic certification as a result of the movement restrictions and social distancing requirements arising from the global Covid-19 pandemic. However, the issue of EU recognition of UK issued certification, which will be valid for trade in organic products into the whole of the EU until 1st January 2021, still needs to be taken up by concerned ACP governments with the EC, so as to secure a similar extension of the period of recognition of UK issued organic certification by EU authorities. Such a move on the part of the EC would be wholly consistent with the recognition of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the implementation of changes in organic sector regulations which recently saw the EU defer the entry into force of its new organic regulation until January 1st 2022 (from January 1st 2021). Balancing this good news for ACP exporters on the UK side, is however the likely administrative challenges which will be faced in moving from the use of the ‘EU’s Trade Control and Expert System New Technology (TRACES NT)’, to the use of ‘an interim manual UK organic import system from 1 January 2021’. If this reversion to the use of manual trade documentation systems becomes more generalised because of delays in the design and operational application of new UK trade management IT systems (3), then this is likely to introduce friction in border clearance arrangements, with such friction generally being reflected in increased costs and value losses on short shelf life products. |
Sources:
(1) gov.uk, ‘Food and drink labelling changes from 1 January 2021’, DEFRA, Published 14 October 2020, Last updated 16 October 2020
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-and-drink-labelling-changes-from-1-january-2021
(2) gov.uk, ‘Trading and labelling organic food from 1 January 2021’, DEFRA Published 18 February 2019, Last updated 26 October 2020
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/trading-and-labelling-organic-food-from-1-january-2021
(3) gov.uK, ‘Importing food: Organic produce’,
https://www.gov.uk/food-safety-as-a-food-distributor/organic-produce
(4) gov.uk, ‘Guidance Approved UK organic control bodies’, Updated 10 September 2020
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/organic-certification-list-of-uk-approved-organic-control-bodies/approved-uk-organic-control-bodies
(5) healthfoodbusiness.co.uk, ‘Organic sales record largest rise in more than a decade with 9.5% growth’, 26 October 2020
http://www.healthfoodbusiness.co.uk/organic-sales-record-largest-rise-in-more-than-a-decade-with-9-5-per-cent-growth/