Public consultation is now open on Australia’s domestic organic regulatory framework, including how to support industry growth and build consumer confidence.
First Assistant Secretary of Agricultural Policy at the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Joanna Stanion, invited all stakeholders, including farmers, transporters, exporters, retailers, consumers and industry bodies to have their say on a new organics regulation impact statement.
“The department is seeking stakeholder views on regulatory and non-regulatory options to improve Australia’s domestic organic regulatory framework,” Ms Stanion said.
“This is a growing part of the agriculture sector and we are keen to seek a wide range of views.
“The department’s consultations to date have included an online business survey with over 100 responses, a targeted phone survey of producers and processors with over 500 respondents, an online consumer survey with over 1,000 responses, and a range of industry roundtables and one-on-one meetings.”
The public consultation is now open and will close in four weeks on Thursday 17 March at 5pm.
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Fast Facts:
- The global organic food & beverages market was estimated at USD 220 billion in 2019 (Globenewswire 2021) with over 71.5 million hectares of farmland certified organic globally (IFOAM – Organics International, 2020).
- Australia has the largest organic agricultural area in the world (35.7 million hectares).
- According to IBIS World, Australia’s organic industry revenue is forecast to increase at an annualised 14.6 per cent over the five years through 2025-26, to $3.9 billion.
- With agriculture making up a substantial proportion of all organic output, this initiative is linked to the government’s commitment to help the agriculture industry reach its goal of $100 billion in production by 2030 (Ag2030).
