Dalene Wray, Chair of the Board of Directors, provided an oral report to the meeting.
Submission on domestic regulation
On 18 March 2022, we provided a submission to the Government on their Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) on how Australia regulates organic products domestically.
We noted the profound global shift towards more sustainable food systems, driven by trends in both consumption and production. Organics is at the centre of this shift. But Australia has a relatively undeveloped domestic organic market as a direct result of confused government policies and responsibilities. In comparison, overseas consumption and production is supported by the implementation of comprehensive regulation of organic production and marketing, and significant financial and policy support from government. In fact, Australia will soon be the only advanced nation that has not implemented domestic regulation.
Worse still, our lack of domestic regulation is undermining efforts to improve market access for organic exporters. Our target markets, quite rightly, question the equivalence of our organic production systems, when there is no domestic organic regulation in place to provide them with some assurance of our market integrity.
Only domestic legislation will provide the necessarily regulations required to adequately protect organic consumers and producers, and provide the assurity needed for improved export market access.
Domestic regulation and Minister's Advisory Group
OIA participated in the Agriculture Minister’s Organics Industry Advisory Group (OIAG). However, we expressed concern to the Government that the OIAG should be expanded to include a balanced representation of organic operators from each of the six certifying organisations.
The OIAG provided a report to the Minister on adequacy of domestic regulation. It also provided comments on work undertaken by PWC to describe the costs and benefits of regulation.
The OIWG report was not released by the Government.
Industry survey on domestic regulation
At the end of 2021, we undertook an industry survey of views on domestic regulation to inform our submission to the Government. There was overwhelming support (91%) for the regulation of the term 'organic'. Respondents indicated a preference for this to be implemented through a separately legislated scheme and administered by a new regulator.
OISCC reforms
We had been corresponding with the Department of Agriculture to express concern that, while we felt OISCC and the National Standards Sub Committee (NSsC) system has served the Australian industry well for the last decade, the system needed reform to address potential conflicts of interest, to improve transparency, and to increase stakeholder engagement to best serve Australia’s organic industry into the future.
On 30 September 2021, we escalated our concerns:
- the responses we received from OISCC displayed neither the urgency nor solutions that we were expecting
- we were dismayed to learn that the President of OISCC, the first to be notionally independent of the certifiers, was resigning after only a few months in the role
- we understood that two certifiers have resigned as OISCC members
- we were deeply concerned about irregularities in membership changes of NSsC
Coalition of Certifier Organisations in Australia
OIA is hosting a forum next week of certifier organisations and the Department of Agriculture. The aim is to agree an MOU on industry cooperation, develop and implement a code of practice, and oversee annual organic industry reports.
Membership fees
At the General Meeting of members on 11 July, the Board consulted the members on whether to change the structure and level of fees for 2022-23. There was a consensus reached that the Board should implement a tiered structure of membership fees, lift the minimum rate, and charge larger businesses more.
The Board implemented a new membership fee structure for 2022-23, based on the business size of the member.