The Committee of Grain Traders has responded to the Action Plan for Growth of Organic Production and Consumption presented by Minister Piet Adema on 19 December. The Committee questions how realistic the ministry's growth ambitions are and also warns against the dominant role of Skal Biocontrol.
The LNV action plan broadly outlines the route to grow the organic area in the Netherlands to 15% by 2030. This equates to a growth of the organic area from 80.000 hectares to 300.000 in eight years. The committee calls this very ambitious. Switching from conventional to organic takes farmers two to three years and consumers are inclined to keep their fingers crossed in the current uncertain times. The committee therefore asks the ministry for regular monitoring of the goals and for room to adjust the plans if practice requires this.
Control capacity
The committee questions the role of Skal Biocontrol. In contrast to many other EU countries, the Netherlands has chosen to place both supervisory and certification tasks under one organization. The committee would like to see these tasks transferred to two different organizations in order to properly separate the two roles. The committee also doubts whether Skal Biocontrol has sufficient capacity to handle the growth from the current 4% to 15%. Affiliated members notice that Skal already has difficulty responding quickly to certification requests. The committee also notes that it is remarkable that only one company may be used for inspections.
According to the Committee of Grain Traders, it is advisable in the inspections to emphasize 'on encouraging organic production and not on checking through analysis and enforcement for the complete absence of chemical-synthetic pesticide residues'. The committee mainly points to problems that can arise among farmers. For example, due to drift or residues that may be present in the soil, organically grown products could still lose their organic status later in the chain.
Although the committee emphasizes the farmer's problems, a good listener could also see a great self-interest for the grain trade in this. For the consumption of grains and legumes, the Netherlands is largely dependent on imports from other (EU) countries. That is why a level European playing field is important. A temporary derogation on organic livestock feed in 2022 is given as an example. The European directive has been implemented differently by different Member States. Member States also apply different standards in the field of residues. Grain has only a limited place in building plans in Dutch agriculture. For consumption, the Netherlands is therefore largely dependent on imports from other (EU) countries.