"Widespread Uproar" Over Organic Fee Increase?

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"Widespread Uproar" Over Organic Fee Increase?

A lobby group representing some 150 organic farmers, many in the Roscommon and Galway region, claim that there is “widespread uproar among organic farmers” over what they describe as “a very serious issue that has arisen regarding Certification Body costs.”

The Organic Farmers’ Representative Body (OFRB) state that “an additional charge has been imposed on farmers this year, by both Certification Bodies which is totally unacceptable.” The organisation continues “this cost was imposed at the very last minute without any consultation with farmers or representative bodies.”

They “have asked Minister Hayes to intervene to force the Bodies to reverse this unfair and unwarranted charge. This issue is very urgent as the new Certification Fees are due by 6th January 2014.”

Of the two certification bodies queried on this, the Organic Trust responded.

They said “The Organic Trust did not increase membership fees since 2009 despite significant additional expenses being incurred between 2009 and 2013”.

These expenses were listed as:

· EN45011 accreditation and maintenance of accreditation (which added between 15- 20K to our annual costs)

· The introduction of a new standards manual on 01.01.2012 and the dissemination of this manual to all OTL members (cost circa €33K including postage charges)

· The provision of free nationwide training seminars to all members in 2012 to convey the requirements of the new standards

· Significant increases in professional indemnity and other insurance costs

· Significant utilities expense increases in this period.

They added “all of the above expenses were absorbed by the Organic Trust Ltd through a range of cost saving measures introduced across the board; this included reductions in manpower resources and other cost saving measures.”

The Organic Trust also claims that it is thus “unique in not having imposed any fee increases during the period 2009 to 2013”.

Compounding the strained cost situation, sampling costs have increased. Helen Scully of the Organic Trust pointed out “One of the specific reasons for the increase in fees for 2014 relates to the requirement under Regulation 392/2013 to carry out residue and other sampling on a minimum of 5% of all Organic Trust members. This effectively will add an additional circa €18-20K to our costs as the previous sampling requirement was on the basis of specific suspicion of wrong-doing”.

She continues “however, the new requirement requires no such suspicion and is a mandatory obligation on 5% of all operators certified by us which very substantially increases the numbers of samples taken for analysis. The organisation simply could not absorb such additional costs hence the very modest increase in our membership fees for 2014.”

Helen Scully also pointed out that “the Organic Trust is a not-for-profit organisation and our members are represented by a voluntary unpaid Board of Management who accepted the need to impose a modest increase in fees for the reasons stated. The Board took the decision to spread the costs of such additional sampling across all members as opposed to sending invoices to those individuals from whom samples were collected – this means that everybody shares the additional regulatory burden equally and no specific members have punitive additional costs imposed as a result of this regulatory change.”

It seems then that changes have been imposed on the organic certification system, and that the costs of these changes are trickling down to ordinary organic farmers.

The OFRB claim to have only found out about this fee increase in the lead up to Christmas.With the fees due in by 6th of January will be challenging for quite a few in the organic sector. Welcome to 2014.

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