Credibility in international organic trade crucial
13th March 2008
The IFOAM Trade Congress 2008 was held on the day before BioFach opened in Nuremberg and addressed important issues of worldwide product sourcing, transparency in trade and potential opportunities for fraud. In their contributions, several speakers from USA, Germany and the Netherlands examined the problems from different angles.
Gert Termeer from the Dutch import/export company Tradin called for improvements. On the one hand, much more ought to be invested in the conversion of agricultural holdings so that the market problems caused by demand exceeding supply would be alleviated. On the other hand, there should be higher investment in quality systems and controls to prevent one and the same product turning up twice as both organic and non-organic in different consumer countries.