AFI 3 Meeting in 2009

The international workshop took place in Bologna (Italy) on September 14, 2009.

The Italian organic sector, initiated the first regional workshop on combating fraud. The meeting was attended by representatives of the EU Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture, German government officials and about 80 participants. Speakers of different inspection and certification bodies described the current situation and proposed solutions. Fabrizio Piva of Federbio presented statistics about the Italian residue testing of organic products. In 5-7% of cases, residues were found.

The participants discussed the next steps in three stakeholder workshops. They found that cross-border cooperation between the European inspection and certification bodies should be intensified. After detecting residues rapid and effective responses are required. Crosschecks need to be used cross border to compare sales documentation (e.g. delivery notes, invoices, sales volume) between Italian sellers and buyers in other European member states. The competent authorities are required to implement EC legislation for organic agriculture to ensure a harmonized and targeted monitoring of organic certification.

PDF-document: Report: Anti Fraud Initiative 3