Cooperation to combat fraud

At BioFach 2015, Organic Services and Bionext, and Organic Services and Federbio agreed on a close cooperation. The common strategy targets greater reliability, quality and integrity of organic food and farming by fighting fraud based on real time certification data connected to the supply chain. The cooperation will strengthen the activities of the three organizations by working together and by combining their efforts. All three organizations are dedicated to fighting fraud in organic supply chains and markets to protect the integrity of products and brands and to justify the confidence of consumers in organic products. More information is available here.

With its member companies from processing and trade, Bionext developed an Organic Risk Assessment Tool over the past years. Bionext will present a web-based tool allowing for smarter use and wider acceptance. Federbio developed the Federbio Integrity Platform in close cooperation with retail, processors and certifiers. The 2015 grain harvest will be the first which will be traded on the platform, monitoring volumes through the complete supply chain from farm to retails. Grain imported to Italy will be step by step integrated, so that full traceability is achieved. Organic Services launched Check Organic at BioFach 2014 as a real time database linking certification data from organic certification bodies with production data along the supply chain. The global roll-out is under way with certifiers signing up for delivering of certification data.

Since its foundation Organic Services has engaged in develoPPP, the programme financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany. Together with companies from various sectors (e.g. fair organization, IT, sustainability, organic food and farming) projects have been designed, successfully acquired and implemented. On 15 February, the Ministry has launched develoPPP - a world without hunger targeted to Africa: a) agriculture and food security, b) professional education and extension. Eligible are SMEs from Germany as well as other EU countries with at least one million turnover, ten employees and three years of operation. Lost grant is up to 50% of the project expense, totalling to a maximum of 200,000 Euros. More information is available here.