Standards slipping as organic food booms?

08 January 1999

Standards slipping as organic food booms?

By FWi staff

THE huge rise in demand for organic food has sparked fears that standards could slip if rogue suppliers try to take advantage of premium prices.

The news comes at the start of the three-day conference organised by the Soil Association, which sets the British standards for organic produce.

Delegates at the National Conference on Organic Food and Farming this morning (Friday) heard that supermarket sales of organic food sales have doubled.

Many supermarkets are importing organic produce because demand outstrips supplies from British farmers, listeners were told at the Royal College of Agriculture, Cirencester.

But the premium prices are tempting some overseas suppliers to sell conventional produce as organic, says a report in The Guardian today.

There is increasing evidence that Eastern European agri-businesses are exploiting a European Union loophole governing organic food, says the newspaper.

Brussels allows some farms converting to organic production to sell their produce after only one year instead of the four or five years it takes in Britain.

The Soil Association told The Guardian that the possibility of unscrupulous practices overseas is becoming increasingly difficult to police.

“Its very tempting for people to offer conventionally grown food as organic,” said Mark Houghton Brown, a Soil Association board member.

Supermarkets expect demand for organic food to continue for at least the next five years with the sector expanding at 2.5% annually.