Market News

Organics Standards Needed to Legitimize Industry

A lack of national organics standards in Canada is leaving consumers skeptical, growers frustrated and may threaten valuable exports, says a report in the Financial Post . Canada is one of the few Western countries that has not implemented national rules for organically produced food resulting, according to sources cited in the report, a "free-for-all" where consumers have no way of determining whether the organic foods offered at the grocery store live up to claims touted on their labels. According to the report, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says its plans to have regulations ready for publication earlier this month have been delayed, but the agency says it expects to have national organic standards in place by the end of the year. If this timeline isn\'t met, organic growers risk huge losses as the European Union—which imports tens of millions of dollars worth of organic food from Canada annually—says it will ban imports of Canadian organics effective January 1, 2007. Source: Canadian Grocer E-Newsletter, April 25, 2006.