East African Meeting on Common Standards

The national co-ordinator of Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) has announced that a regional meeting has been scheduled in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss and endorse the process of harmonising standards for organic agricultural products from East Africa. The existing national standards already in place will be examined and areas which could be harmonised will be checked. A regional draft and a governance structure have been developed. The first “East African Organic Standards” (EAOS) is expected to be in place by early 2007, reports Nationmedia.com and will include Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. So far, Kenya has 1,600 hectares of land certified under organic farming and about 600 hectares is under conversion.

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Business/biz220520069.htm