India in talks with Aus, NZ, Japan to ink pact to mutually recognise organic products conformity norms

New Delhi: India is in talks with Taiwan, Japan, Australia, UAE and New Zealand to achieve Mutual Recognition Agreements for exports of organic products, the government said Tuesday, adding that the outbound shipments of the country's organic food products rose 51% in FY21 to $1.04 billion.

Through an MRA, two or more countries agree to recognize one another’s conformity assessments thereby aiding ease of trade.

“In order to facilitate the trade between major importing countries, negotiations are underway with Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia, UAE, New Zealand for achieving Mutual Recognition Agreements for exports of Organic products from India.

As per M Angamuthu, chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Indian organic products, nutraceuticals and health food are gaining more demand in overseas markets.

“The growth in organic products has been achieved despite logistical and operational challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement, adding that India’s organic products have been exported to 58 countries including USA, European Union, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Switzerland and Israel.

In terms of quantity, the exports of organic food products grew 39% to 0.88 million metric tonne (MT) in FY21 from 0.63 million MT shipped in 2019-20.

Organic products are currently exported from India only if they are produced, processed, packed and labelled as per the requirements of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP). The NPOP certification is recognised by the European Union and Switzerland which enables India to export unprocessed plant products to these countries without the requirement of additional certification. The equivalency with the EU also facilitates export of Indian organic products to the United Kingdom even in the post Brexit phase.

NPOP has also been recognized by the Food Safety Standard Authority of India for trade of organic products in the domestic market. Organic products covered under the bilateral agreement with NPOP need not to be recertified for import in India.