Brussels (Reuters) – an agreement announced on Wednesday to allow articles produced organically and that they have been certified in Europe or United States are sold as organic in both regions to boost transatlantic trade in the sector of food expected, authorities said.
The agreement of mutual recognition by the two world’s largest producers of organic products comes into force in June and aims to increase the market access of farmers and organic exporters in both regions reducing cost and bureaucracy.
“We hope that a growth there is in trade as a result of this agreement,” Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy of United States agriculture, told Reuters in a telephone interview Wednesday.
“We believe that this is extremely positive for the organic market, consumers and farmers alike”.
According to the agreement, products such as meat, cereals and wine who receive organic certification in a region can be labelled and sold automatically as organic in the other.
The agreement covers all agricultural products, as well as fish and seafood, but excludes any article using antibiotics during its production, which means that some beef produced in the EU and apples and pears American will not met requirements.
Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for agriculture, “Try to prove that not we will block your negotiations of this great deal only for specific things,” told Reuters.
The global market of organic products was valued at 45 billion euros in 2010 by Organic Monitor, who said that the annual growth of sales remained good, despite a slowdown following the financial crisis of 2008.
Together, the EU and United States represent 90 percent of the global consumption of organic products, said the European Commission.
/Por Charlie Dunmore /
