New USDA organic rules put wine importers in a difficult situation

It’s hard to truly do justice to the recent explosion in organic food. What was once a small subset of the overall food and beverage market is now closer to approx A $200 billion industry– and is expected to grow to over $500 billion by 2032. In just the next decade 2011 to 2021organic food sales in the U.S. have increased by an average of 8 percent annually, while organic acreage has increased by just under 80 percent. During the same period, the number of certified organic crops increased by over 90 percent.

Unfortunately – and, given human nature, perhaps inevitably – this was also the case matters organic product fraud, which involves misrepresenting non-organic products as organic products. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), organic fraud is a problem on growthwith particular problems regarding the import of organic products from the Black Sea region and countries such as India. The agency stepped in by adopting new rules in 2023 – dubbed the “Enhanced Organic Enforcement” (SOE) rule, which took effect in March this year. Importers of organic products given ‘unofficial grace period’ through this September follow the rule. Now that the grace period has passed, the consequences are starting to become apparent.

The SOE rule increases, among other things, the number of stakeholders in the supply chain who must be certified for organic products. In addition to continuing to require certification for organic food producers and farms, the rule requires every company that deals with an ecological product on its way from the farm to the store to also have an ecological certificate. The new rule was largely supported by the organic food industry, arguing that it would increase the integrity of the supply chain, but main influence has so far plunged the global wine industry into crisis.

Under this rule, any organic wine imported into the U.S. must not only be grown on an organic vineyard and bottled at an organic vineyard, but now the importer must also be certified organic. If you’re confused – or even ironically surprised – by, for example, how a company operating a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean laden with wine could be considered “organic,” the answer seems to be: more compliance headaches. According to a wine importer interviewed by a beverage portal A pair of vinesOrganic certification will now require not only more administrative paperwork, but will also include an initial certification inspection, as well as the ability to “randomly audit an importer’s premises to enforce compliance without prior warning.”

When A pair of vines myself he reached out to the USDA requesting clarification on the certification process and associated costs, the agency responded by sending an organic certification document since 2012. Much of the confusion over how exactly the new rule will apply to wine importers stems from the fact that the USDA has chosen not to even send direct notices to importers potentially impacted by the rule – instead, many wines importers “he found out about it through a few panicked emails” from winery partners or through logistics companies they worked with.

For its part, the USDA appears to be as unprepared as wine importers. The agency estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 companies would need new certification under this rule, but according to Wine seekeras of last week, fewer than 2,000 organic food operations had been certified. But don’t let USDA’s unintentional ineptitude lull you into hoping for more bureaucratic clemency: agency spokesman he repeated Down Wine seeker that “(f) failure to comply with USDA organic regulations may result in significant monetary penalties.”

As a result, many organic wines will have to be withdrawn from store shelves to avoid violating the new regulations, either ditch organic label on the package – even if they were legally produced by a USDA-certified organic winery that uses grapes from a USDA-certified vineyard.

Preventing fraud is an understandable goal, but ironically, USDA’s involvement in organic regulation did just that led to dilution organic standards – of course to the benefit of Big Ag – i best bet perhaps it will return organic certification to state and local governments, or even private certification bodies. In the meantime, if the USDA is going to continue to engage in organic regulation, it can at least stop threatening reprisals and penalties that are solely the result of its own incompetence.

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