Australia’s certified organic industry has been left shocked and disappointed at the decision by Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt to abandon plans to introduce domestic regulation, ignoring his own panel of industry experts and thousands of producers. In a bitter twist, Minister Watt’s decision comes on the same day New Zealand’s parliament formally passed a bill to create an organic standard, leaving Australia as the only developed country in the world without organic regulation.
Queensland’s oldest organic processor and the nation’s leading producer of organic free-range chicken have expressed their frustration at the government’s “ill-informed” and “ridiculous” decision to abandon organic domestic regulation. Quentin Kennedy, Managing Director of Kialla Pure Foods, addressed media and industry leaders today in response to Agriculture Minister Murray Watt’s recent comments that regulation would be “too big a burden” for some organic operators.
As peak body for Australia’s organic industry, AOL has reacted with alarm and dismay at the move by Minister for Agriculture Murray Watt to place domestic regulation into the too-hard basket, despite his department’s own commissioned advice finding it will leave the industry and consumers worse off.
Peak representative body Australian Organic Limited (AOL) has taken its campaign for mandatory domestic regulation of the organic industry to Canberra, as organic producers and businesses grow increasingly frustrated by the protracted pathway to an urgently needed regulatory framework. AOL met with almost 20 parliamentarians and stakeholders from across the country last week, to refocus decision makers’ attention on the issue that continues to unnecessarily impede Australia’s more than $2 billion organic industry
AOL has welcomed today’s Coalition Government re-election commitment to implement a domestic standard for organic production, processing, supply chains and labelling.
The discussion about domestic regulation of Australia’s organic industry has entered a new stage with the reconvening of the Organics Industry Advisory Group (OIAG).
Australia's $2.6 billion organic industry is celebrating a milestone in establishing a mandatory standard for use of the word ‘organic’ following an Australian Government announcement today calling for public consultation on the matter.
Olio Bello, an award-winning olive grove in the Margaret River region, has echoed calls among the organic industry that a national mandatory standard for use of the word “organic” in marketing needs to be established.
Barambah Organics CEO Matthew Stanton, has been quick to back calls for the introduction of a mandatory standard for use of the word “organic”.