Organic farming

Organic production shall be subject to official control at every stage: production, preparation, storage, transport and distribution.

Stage of “preparation” means the operations of preserving or processing of organic or in-conversion products, or any other operation that is carried out on an unprocessed product without altering the initial product, such as slaughtering, cutting, cleaning or milling, as well as packaging, labelling or alterations made to the labelling relating to organic production.

Polish Centre for Testing and Certification is a control body to which the Chief Inspector of JHARS has delegated official control tasks and tasks related to other official activities in organic farming referred to in Art. 40 (1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Our code number is PL-EKO-06.

Legal requirements for organic production are included in the following documents:

• Act on organic farming and organic production (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland 2022 item 1370)
• Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 (Official Journal L 150 of 14 June 2018)
• Implementing acts and delegated acts to aforementioned Regulation can be found at: https://www.gov.pl/web/rolnictwo/przepisy-unijne
• other legal acts: https://www.gov.pl/web/rolnictwo/akty-prawne2

The European Commission is working on new legal regulations regarding organic farming, do not hesitate to follow the information posted on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The organic production sector is a particularly important part of agricultural production and food industry.

The dynamic development of organic production is caused by the growing interest of consumers in high quality food produced with respect for the natural environment and animal welfare. Growing interest means increased possibilities for sales of organic products and opportunity of development for farmers, food and feed processors and operators dealing with placing such products on the market.

The scope of certification carried out by Polish Centre for Testing and Certification includes the following categories of activity:

• production
• preparation
• distribution / placing on the market
• storage
• import
• export

Stage of “preparation” means the operations of preserving or processing of organic or in-conversion products, or any other operation that is carried out on an unprocessed product without altering the initial product, such as slaughtering, cutting, cleaning or milling, as well as packaging, labelling or alterations made to the labelling relating to organic production.

Aforementioned activities cover the following products categories:

• unprocessed plants and plant products
• including seeds and other plant reproductive material
• livestock and unprocessed livestock products, algae and unprocessed aquaculture products
• processed agricultural products, including aquaculture products, for use as food
• feed
• wine
• other products listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/848

The list of issued certificates is available on the TRACES – https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/tracesnt/directory/publication/organic-operator/index.