EU Reg. 2018/848: organic agriculture in European Union

Organic Agriculture is a method of agricultural production which exalts the natural fertility of the soil ecosystem, the healthiness of the products and reinforces sustainability without using synthetic products (es.chemical inputs and fertilizers). In order to obtain organic certification there has to be compliance with the EU Reg. 2018/848, which settles the production, processing, labelling, control and certification system in the EU.

HOW TO OBTAIN CERTIFICATION

CCPB is a certification body which is authorized to assess the compliance to the EU Regulation. Therefore all the production, processing, commercialization and import of Organic agricultural products or food commodities can address CCPB and apply to the control system through the compilation of the NOTIFICATION OF ACTIVITY WITH ORGANIC METHOD.

THE NOTIFICATION FROM REGION TO REGION

From 2012 the operators are compelled to the respect of the procedures of the digitalization of the organic notification. The presentation procedures are different from region to region. In Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria e Puglia are active regional IT systems. In the other regions is active national SIB (Organic IT System).

CERTIFICATION PROCESS

Once the notification is completed the following steps are:

• When the notification is made available to the certification body, the cb starts to plan the first inspection visit, called "starting phase", and assigns the company to an inspector that proceeds with the assessment
• The inspector assesses the compliance of the company and the documents prepared by the operator with the EU Reg. . Then the inspector presents a report to the certification body.
• Once assessed the documents and the results of the inspection visit in the starting phase, the certification body decides, if that is the case, to admit the operator in the organic control system.
• The compliant company is then informed of the compliance and of the conversion time (for agricultural companies) assigned to the single lots depending on production, and the eventual corrective actions to be adopted.
• The non compliant company is informed of the non compliance and the relative reasons, and the procedures for eventually proceed with an appeal.
• On the basis of a prior annual control plan, the certification body monitors and assesses the maintenance of the compliance to the reference regulation.