Viet Nam

The Vietnam PGS was developed under the ADDA – VietNam Farmer’s Union in 2009. It involves producer groups, consumers, supporting organizations (NGOs) as well as organic traders (companies).

Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange.

Moreover, to export organic products to Switzerland it is necessary to comply with the requirements of national and EC regulation into force, together with the additional requirements of Bio Suisse standards, plus receiving an inspection from the control body that controls and certify the company for EC Reg. 834/07.

The Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) was fully implemented in 2001 and revised in 2005. All JAS certifiers are required to be accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture. The term "organic" may be used only by certified producers.

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) is the controlling body for organic certification. The government only becomes involved with organic certification at export. There are several AQIS-approved certifying organizations who issue Organic Produce Certificates.

The Canadian Organic Products Regulations (COR) was implemented at the federal level in 2009, which is a mandatory certification required for agricultural products represented as organic in import, export and inter-provincial trade, and those that carry the federal organic logo. The COR is a benchmark of NOP (USDA).

The French organic certification was introduced in 1985 with “AB - Agriculture Biologique” mark, which is fulfills the EU regulation for organic food. The certification process is overseen a public institute "Agence française pour le développement et la promotion de l'agriculture biologique" (usually abbreviated "Agence bio"). The actual certification authorities include a number of different institutes.

The German national organic label was introduced in 2001. The “Bio label” has gained widespread popularity and its popularity extends to neighboring countries like Austria, Switzerland and France.

The IFOAM Standard is an internationally applicable organic standard born to create synergies and harmonization in the organic sector at global level. Bioagricert Organic Standard has been accredited by IFOAM since 1996.

ACT received IFOAM accreditation from IOAS in 2001. ACT is the first certification body in Asia to get this recognition. In this programme, the scope of certification that ACT can offer includes crop production, wild harvest, aquaculture, processing and handling, and commercial input certifications. Operators certified under this programme can use the ACT organic seal together with the label “IFOAM Accredited”. The ACT seal and IFOAM Accredited label must always accompany each other.