Local organic growers are being encouraged make a submission for the Senate inquiry into the National Organic Standard Bill 2024.
Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud is encouraging local organic growers and providers to make a submission for the Senate inquiry into the National Organic Standard Bill 2024.
The Senate has referred the Bill to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 31 January, 2025.
Mr Littleproud said the inquiry is on the back of the Coalition’s common-sense legislation, ensuring organic products being sold and consumed across the domestic and export markets are actually organic.
“The Coalition introduced the Bill for a National Organic Standard to manage domestic organic products and the import of organic products into Australia,” Mr Littleproud said.
“It defies logic that organic products currently aren’t required to be certified or comply with any particular organic standard, but can still call themselves organic.”
Chief Commercial Officer of Australian Consolidated Milk Ryan Reynolds said domestic regulation of the term ‘organic’ is long overdue and would have an immediate positive impact for brands locally, improving trust and consumer confidence for organic dairy. “For the organic sector, regulating the term ‘organic’ can start to enable export equivalence discussions and arrangements to be formed with key premium markets,” Mr Reynolds said.
“This is the single biggest opportunity to grow the sector, as access to premium markets means additional value is created and shared with our organic dairy farmer suppliers, that in turn, creates a very healthy, profitable and sustainable industry.
Australia is the last nation in the OECD to not have a regulatory framework for the use of the word ‘organic’.
To make a submission go to https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/OnlineSubmission