 |
 |
Main Menu All: Expand | Collapse
Tell a friend about this page!
|
|
|
Supporting Organic Integrity & Credibility
A wide range of certified and self claimed organic products are available in the Malaysian market. It can be difficult to identify which is which, not to mention discerning whether the certification claim is credible or not. Firstly, many consumers may not be aware that a certife multi-ingredient product may not be 100% organic. Organic rule allow multi-ingredient products made of 95% and above organic ingredients to be labelled as certified organic. Whilst the claim 'made with organi ingredients' is afor products with 70% to 95% organic ingredients. Products with less than 70% organic ingredients cannot use the word organic except to list organic ingredients in the ingredients panel of the packaging. The Malaysian market is full of imported products bearing different certification marks all over the world. One needs training to know who is who. Local processors who repack certified bulk items often claim the repacked products are certified. This may seem reasonable to a layman, but is a misrepresentation and abuse of the certification mark. Consumers may not know that unless the repacking operation is certified, repacked products cannot claim to be certified. It is not mandatory in Malaysia for operators to be certified to make an organic claim. The government organic certification scheme (Skim Organik Malaysia) only cover farms not processing operations. As a relatively new sector and many organic operators in the country being Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the cost of external certififcation can be prohibitive and inhibit sector growth. Moreover, trust and credibility do not entirely depend on formal certification. Certification itself cannot eliminate fraud.
OAM Quality Assurance Assistance Service The foundation of good practice and prevention of fraud line in the proper understanding of organic production, processing and labelling standards by operators in the organic product claim. Many orgnaic operators in the country are still not familiar with organic quality handling and management procedures. OAM is preparing to assist interested operators to develop proper organic handling and management systems. This includes training retail staff to correctly inform consumers on the status of products for the make an informed choice.
Organic Malaysia Mark To ease difficulty for consumers to recognise certified credible seld claim organic products, OAM will issue the Organic Malaysia mark to interested certified operators and operators using the OAM Quality Assurance Assistance service to facilitate easy identification of credible organic products in the market. The Organic Malaysia mark scheme will include training support, promotion as well as complains audit of participating operators.
The OAM Export Certification service For exporters, OAM can arrange the necessary export certification for European Union, USA and Japanese markets through Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand (ACT), based in Bangkok, Thailand and Istituto per la Certificazione Etica ed Ambientale (ICEA), based in Bologna, Italy. Both are IFOAM Accredited certification bodies.
|
|
|
|
|