Certification issue holds back organic exports prospects

Local producers are missing huge opportunities of export of their organic foods to the international chain superstores and other market places mainly due to lack of an accreditation board for transparent and credible certification.
Industry circles said around 15,000 farmers and 40 small and medium-sized factories are producing different types of organic products having an immense prospect of export.
But because of lack of a certifying body, they have long been deprived of good earnings through exports.
Organic food is gaining widespread acceptability and its market is growing rapidly both in developed and developing countries like India and China.
They said people across the globe are gradually becoming health conscious for which demand for organic products, especially food items, has been increasing steadily for the last five years and the demand will continue to rise in the years to come.
Besides, increasing buying power of Asian consumers, especially those of India and China, is also helping rapid expansion of demand for such items, they added.
"There is a huge scope of export of organic items to both developed and developing countries but we can not avail the opportunity for lack of certification," President of the Bangladesh Organic Products Manufacturers' Association (BOPMA) Abdus Salam told the FE.
"The main retailers of organic products are chain shops across the globe where we have no entrance only because of absence of certification at home," he added.
Mr Salam said the producers are also failing to gain confidence of consumers in local market as the latter  do not trust only verbal assurances of quality.
"With rising spending power of the growing middle class within the country and increased awareness over chemical-free foods, demand for organic and natural products sector is growing rapidly. But local consumers are also hesitating to buy organic items."
"But certification of the goods would surely boost confidence of local farmers to earn consumers' trust in both local and international markets," Mr Salam said.
According to him, the country's present annual export earning from organic foods is around US$300 million which could be increased by three to four times within a couple of years if there is a certifying body.
The main consumers of the organic goods abroad are non-resident Bangladeshis, Indians and Chinese.
The BOPMA president said nearly 90 per cent of the farmers in the country were familiar with bio-farming until mid-eighties but later most of them adopted chemical-based cropping in the name of 'modern agriculture'.
"Now they could be motivated again to organic farming if its benefits are ensured."
However, considering the prospect of organic farming in Bangladesh, President of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) Andre Leu visited the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute's experimental farms and met concerned officials of the government and the private sector along with farmers.
"The farmers of Bangladesh have a rich heritage of bio-farming which can help the country grab a sizeable portion of the global market based on certification," he said at a press meet.
"Sustainable food production will increasingly be important for developing countries as these will be home to most of the world's fast-growing population."
According to an IFOAM study, organic farming is a production system that relies on ecological processes such as waste recycling and does not use chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
The association's study showed that global consumption of organic products crossed $100 billion in 2013.
Certifications for organic agriculture are increasingly concentrated in wealthier countries, according to the IFOAM study.
From 2009 to 2010, Europe increased its organic farmland by 9 per cent to 10 million hectares, the largest growth in any region.
Organic products manufacturing is one of the fastest growing industries in the US, expanding by 9.5 per cent in 2011 to reach $31.5 billion in sales.
However, Vice Chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Suvashis Bose, said the government will soon initiate formation of a board that would be tasked to certify organic items.
"We are working to form an accreditation board and are hopeful of seeing a complete committee soon," he added.   

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