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Friday, June 20th
Location: Chamber of Commerce, via Ganaceto 34 - Modena
Room: salette 1, 2, 3
Language: English
| 16.30 – 18.00 pm |
The East African organic product Standards (EAOPS) were officially approved by the East African Community in May 2007. These standards were developed in the frame of an IFOAM project, by a technical team, which represented a successful private public partnership at the regional level. A similar process started in the Pacific region, where IFOAM is implementing a similar project.
The EAOPS, and the Organic Standards for the Pacific are taking regional conditions into account, and will serve for local and regional marketing, but access to foreign markets shall also be possible and will have to be developed.
Local and regional marketing of organic products started already in East Africa and also in special niche markets in the Pacific. Other niche markets exist and need to be developed. Consumer awareness plays an important role in this regard. Some experiences exist already in East Africa, where a survey took place and where the private sector developed a regional organic mark, which is registered in all 5 partner countries and is managed by the regional organic movements.
In order to reduce certification costs and facilitate small holder participation in the market place, PGS is a very important tool, which needs to be developed for the relevant regions and countries, taking the special conditions into account.
Apart of low consumer awareness the weak supply chain is often still a handicap for the further development of local markets.
Lessons learned and experiences gain through these projects will be shared and discussed within the organic movement. The importance of regional and/or national action plans will be discussed for the development of OA in countries with an emerging organic sector.
Speakers:
East Africa
- Patricia Wangong’u, Regional coordinator, OSEA project;
- Moses Kiggundu, National Coordinator, National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) and OSEA project steering committee member
Pacific
- Karen Mapusua, Steering committee speaker Pacific project;
- Stephen Hazelman, Coordinator of Information, Coordination and Extension, Land Resources Division, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC, Pacific Project partner);
- Adi Tafuna’i, Women in Business Development (WIBD, Pacific Project partner)
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