Development of a National Standard for Organic Products in Russia
Report Highlights:
A draft law "On Manufacture of Organic Agricultural Products and Modification of the Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" has been developed by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with Russian industry and published on November 26, 2012. A definition of organic products, where its main feature is compliance with the requirements of national or international standards of organic agricultural products, is provided in the draft law. The law also covers issues related to the state support of the production of organic agricultural products and provides amendments to be made in a wide range of other federal laws. The law is currently in the draft phase and has not yet been notified to the WTO.
The final law is anticipated to come into force in 2015. You can find an unofficial translation of the draft law in Appendix 1 of this report.
General Information:
The organic market in Russia is in the development stage. One of the main obstacles to market expansion is the absence of a regulatory body or state certification system for organic products. As a result, Russian producers keen to operate in the organic food market have to obtain official certification from third countries (often the EU) in order to place an official certification label on their products as bio or organic, or to export them abroad. Some Russian producers apply “bio” or “organic” labels without any official certification. Imports of organic products are currently not restricted to nationally certified food products. Thus, consumers do not have a consistent standard to look for on food product labels.
In 2012, several Russian producers of so-called “bio” products, e.g. Corporation Organic, the "Planet Health" group of companies, and the Association "Ecoklaster", came out with an open letter to the Russian Minister of Agriculture wherein they raised concerns about the lack of regulation of organic agricultural products in Russia and stressed the need to amend current regulatory rules. These companies introduced proposals to be included into a draft regulation “On Producing Ecologically Clean (Organic) Agricultural Products”.
