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16.11.2022 (Обновлено: 24.11.2022 12:43)

EAEU countries plan to sign an agreement on free trade in organic agricultural products

A draft Agreement on the Procedure for Recognizing Organic Products in the Eurasian Economic Union was approved at a meeting of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission. The document will be subject to internal approval process in the Union states until March 10, 2023.

"The agreement will make it possible to unify the requirements for the production and labeling of organic products within the EAEU. It will serve as the basis for mutual recognition of certificates of conformity and free circulation of these products. The access of all producers of the EAEU countries to a common market with more than 180 million consumers will be a good incentive for increasing the pace of development of the organic sector in the EAEU. It will help diversify organic production and deepen the processing of organic products based on cooperation between agricultural producers of the Union countries," emphasized Artak Kamalyan, Minister in charge of Industry and Agroindustrial Complex of the EEC. 

The agreement provides for the unification of requirements for labeling organic products sold in the Member States, the equivalent use of the terms "organic", "biological", "ecological" in the labeling of products, as well as the placement of a single mark of conformity for organic products on their packaging.

For reference

The development of a draft document is provided for by the roadmap for the formation of a common market for organic agricultural products within the EAEU approved by Disposition No. 16 of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council dated August 20, 2021.

The global market for consumption of organic products has shown steady growth in recent decades. In 2020, this area reached another record level of US$129 billion as evidenced by data compiled by the European Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) from 190 countries.

More than 80% of the market for the consumption of organic products is concentrated in North America (more than US$57 billion) and Europe (US$56 billion), the Asian market is estimated at US$13.5 billion.