The EU research project, CERTCOST, has issued the first digital CERTCOST newsletter. Despite the fact that organic

certification and its costs might be a somewhat dry subject from a consumer’s point of view, we intend to present the results in a eatable manner. The International Center for Research in Organic Food Systems, ICROFS, is responsible for dissemination of the CERTCOST project

Rebsdorf, Simon Olling

English

Organic Eprints

CERTCOST News

This is the second CERTCOST newsletter. CERTCOST stands for economic analysis of certification systems for organic

food and farming This analysis is done in collaboration between stakeholders and scientific experts.



More and more results of the project become available, Some

highlights you find in this newsletter. More detailed information is at the project website www.certcost.or

n   ws 2/2011Page 1CERTCOST is a 7th Framework Programme research project supported by the European Commission. The project runs for three years, 2008  -2011 and its main objective is to generate research-based knowledge on ways to improve the organic food certification system in terms of efficiency, transparency and cost effectiveness.Newsletter of the CERTCOST project     l     2011     l     Number 2P(Y=1|xi)=1 + e - (β0+β1 100+β0 1+β0 1+β0 1)1Economic analysis of certification systems for organic food and farmingn   wswww.certcost.org www.certcost.orgWelcome to the second digital newsletter issue from the EU research project, CERTCOST.ContentsA few words from the coordinator          2Two new public CERTCOST reports:1. Recommendations for actors in the organic sector   32. Public prices and size of the certification sector     3 In brief: Main findings and outcomes of the CERTCOST project   4 Past events: A stakeholder’s view on the CERTCOST session at BioFach 5  Those who have cheated will cheat again      6Workshop in Brussels: Improving the organic certification system   6 A few words from the coordinatorWelcome to this second CERTCOST newsletter. CERTCOST stands for economic analysis of certification systems for organic food and far­ming... (continued on page 2)Welcome to the CERTCOST news letterSubscribe to CERTCOST news for free!The free CERTCOST newsletter is issued as an electronic email-newsletter (pdf). It issues news on current research within the CERTCOST project and more generally news about events and activities relevant to organic certfication systems.Subscribe to the CERTCOST NewsletterSubscriben   ws 2/2011Page 2A few words from the coordinatorWelcome to this second CERT­COST newsletter. CERTCOST stands for economic analysis of   certification systems for organic food and farming This analysis is  done in collaboration between   stakeholders and scientific experts. More and more results of the   project become available, Some highlights you find in this news­letter. More detailed information is at the project website    www.certcost.org.Currently we are working on a synthesis of project results. The idea is to move from scientific   investigations and their results to recommendations for those   involved in the organic certifica­tion system. If you want to bring your ideas into this process – which will be finished at the end of this year – please let me know, how you think the organic certification system could be improved [E­mail:  certcost@uni­hohenheim.de].With kind regards,Professor Stephan Dabbert Universität Hohen­heim,   CERTCOST project coordinator.n   ws 2/2011Page 3Report: Consumer preferen-ces and willingness-to-pay for organic certification logosTopic: Recommendations for  actors in the organic sectorA consumer study shows that consumers have a low level of factual knowledge about or­ganic production standards and the     certification system.   Nevertheless, consumers clearly prefer certain organic certificati­on logos more than others. Across the study countries, different kinds of organic logos are the preferred onesThis is evident in a new   public report from the CERTCOST project, which in effect gives a number of recommendations for different actors in the organic sector on the use and promotion of organic certification logos.How to increase consumer trustThe report briefly outlines the   methods and results, while the focus lies on recommendations for different actors in the organic sector with regard to the use and promotion of organic certification logos. To increase consumer trust in the new mandatory EU logo, it is recommended that promotion campaigns should be carried out explaining what explaining what stands behind the logo.   Get the public report.  Report: Public prices and size of the certification sectorA new public report on publicly available prices and the size of the organic sector in the partici­pating countries.This report surveys the   organic certification sector in selected European countries as regards transparency in relation to public availability of fees for inspec­tion and certification of organic  operators.Additionally, the report estima­tes the size of the organic certi­fication sector in the EU in staff full time years and staff costs.The study is based on the www.organicrules.org data­base   developed in the CERT­COST   project and a detailed   questionnaire study carried out in five EU countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) an associated country (Switzerland) and an EU candidate country (Turkey). Get the public report.Two new public CERTCOST reportsOrganic certification logos discussed in the focus groups.Overview: Organic farming in Europe, surface area by country (source: maps.grida.no)Overview of the actors involved in the organic certification chain based on a figure in the report Economic Concepts of Organic Certification. Get the five public reportsSo far, CERTCOST has publiched five public reports - in addition to a database on certification actors in 19 countries.All the reports are available at the front page of www.certcost.org.n   ws 2/2011Page 4Main project resultsMain findings and outcomes of the CERTCOST project  - in briefBelow you find an overview of the main results achieved so far. Several scientific publicati­ons are in preparation from the CERTCOST project. You can fol­low the development on www.certcost.org.The overall approach of the CERTCOST project is quite inno­vative, as little research has been done on the issue of organic certification.Methodological innovations include contributions to risk­based certification systems by Bayesian Belief Networks and different econometric models.The project outcomes will be   ­ and are already ­ used by and applied by different stakeholders in the organic certification sec­tor: Certification bodies, compe­tent authorities, the European Commission.New certification actor databaseA new user­friendly database on actors involved in the certi­fication chain in 19 European countries (including Turkey) is publicly available at www.orga­nicrules.org.EU legislation for organicThe most important European and international legislation that set the framework for organic certification has been reviewed in the public report, The Euro­pean regulatory framework and its implementation.Economic theory applied o organic foodEconomic theory is applied on organic food products, including a glossary of certification terms and a presentation of the forma­tion of the organic certification system. This is conveyed in the public report, Concepts of Orga­nic Certification.Availability of inspection dataThe control and certification bodies’ records are particular heterogeneous with regard to i) the kind and level of detail of data which is gathered and stored electronically and ii) the format and structure of how the data is recorded. This is shown in a public report on the avai­lability of inspection data from five EU and two non­EU coun­tries, which has been prepared for Commission Services and other programme participants; Organic certification in selected European countries (also detai­led in  CERT  COST  News  No.  1).Better coordination is requiredTo increase the efficiency of the system, a better coordination and cooperation among control bodies is required. This is sug­gested in a CERTCOST survey on administrative costs.Only a few price differencesA market inventory shows that there are only a few   significant price differences in each country between   products of different certifica  tion schemes. This is re­vealed in a CERTCOST analysis.Low knowledge of organic standardsA focus group study with   consumers revealed: In all study countries, the participants’ knowledge of organic standards was generally low. Most of the participants in Italy,   Turkey and the United Kingdom had no preference for any particular standard or logo, whereas in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland some or more people stated a prefe­rence for products of a particular certification scheme.Consumers prefer certain logosA study with purchase simu­lations shows that   consumers clearly prefer   certain organic   certification logos more than others. Across the study coun­tries, different kinds of organic logos are the preferred onesControl bodies’ behaviour differThere are statistically   significant differences   between control bodies with regard to control and sanction behaviour. This is shown in an exploratory analysis of supervision data of the Ger­man organic system.Project communicationIntensive communication with stakeholders has taken place, which has generated implica­tions for the project schedule and project work.Electronic communication tools for internal and external communication, project manage­ment and dissemination have been developed,   including the CERTCOST newsletter.Read more: www.certcost.org.n   ws 2/2011Page 5Past eventsA stakeholder’s view on the CERTCOST session at BioFach CERTCOST partners presented relevant project re­sults at an open stakeholder workshop at the BioFach Organic World Fair, 16­19 February 2011, Nuremberg, Germany.By Paddy Doherty, Code Development Manager, ISEAL Alliance, Canada1. Promising elements in alternative systemsSpeaker: Florentine MeinshausenCERTCOST has compared the organic certification system with other systems, both organic and others to see if there are valuable elements in those other systems that could be used to strengthen the current system.Florentine Meinhausen from IMO, Switzerland, identified three components that could be useful: Risk­based inspections, capacity building and social networking approaches. On all levels, from operators to competent authorities, there is a lack of capacity. There is also no consistent training. For instance, there is no European or even international approaches.2. Can certification encourage organic operators to become better organic operators?Speakers: Susanne Padel, Raffaele Zanoli.Raffaele Zanoli from Universitá Politecnica delle Marche in Italy presented on his research into risk­ based certification; where certification bodies collect lots of information about the farm, but very little about the farmer. He argued that a financial insti­tution wanting to assess risk would be very curious about the farmer. Thus he posed the question, why the certification body that is undertaking a similar exer­cise would not display the same level of cusiosity. Zanoli also explained that the CERTCOST project has formulated 46 hypothetical risk factors that are to be tested. Factors to be included are general, structu­ral, manegerial, control related and production speci­fic factors.In her presentation, Dr. Susanne Padel suggested that organic standards should consider integrating the notion of continuous improvement into their program­mes rather than the ‘pass or fail’ system currently in use by most organic standards bodies. Dr. Padel’s talk was particularly interesting for me, having just com­pleted an assessment of ‘stepwise’ approaches to stan­dards for the ISEAL Alliance Scaling­Up programme.3. The EU logo and other organic logos from the  consumer  perspectiveSpeakers: Meike Janssen, Ulrich Hamm.Meike Janssen from the University of Kassel, Ger­many, presented consumer choice experiments to map their preferences and willingness to pay for products labelled with the EU logo and other organic logos. Based on these choice experiments she gave a set of recommendations for the actors in the organic sector, for instance the project resommends EU authorities to fund campaigns targeted at consumers to raise their awareness of the new EU logo.  Read more: www.certcost.orgn   ws 2/2011Page 6About this newsletterThis newsletter is produced and di-stributed by the International Centre for Research in Organic food Systems, ICROFS.In briefOrganic food certificationBefore operators can start farming organically or manufacturing organic products, they must first apply to an organic inspection body or authority in their Member State.Their premises and production methods have to be inspected and acknowledged by the in-spection body or authority. Organic farms also have to undergo a conversion period, before they can sell their products as organic.Improving the organic certification systemWorkshop in Brussels 14. October 2011The CERTCOST project holds a workshop on how to improve the organic certification system.The workshop presents the results and re­commendations from the EU FP7 project ”Econo­mic Analysis of Certification Systems in Organic Food and Farming” (CERTCOST).Workshop objectives­ to present and discuss the results and synthesis of the CERTCOST project, and­ to critically discuss the project recommendati­ons with stakeholders before they are finalized.Limited number of participantsThe overall number of participants is limited. If you register before September 4, 2011 we can guarantee your participation. After that date we will accommodate registrations on a first come first serve basis.Venue: Vertretung des Landes Baden­Württem­berg bei der Europäischen UnionRue Belliard 60 ­ 62, 1040 Bruxelles Date: Friday, 14. October 2011, 9:15 a.m. ­ 13:15.Get the full invitation at www.certcost.org.Those who have cheated will cheat again”One of the conclusions of the CERTCOST  project on how to improve the organic certification system is that operators thathave had one sanction are likely to have another in the future.In addition, the results showed that livestock produ­cers have more non­conformities than other producers.”Introduction of an article by Gunnar Rundgren, GroLink, in The Organic Standard on the recent project findings (TOS, March 2011, pages 9­10).

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