For ten years, FAO, IFOAM and UNCTAD have worked in partnership to address and reduce barriers to trade of organic products resulting from the global proliferation of organic standards and technical regulations. Our partnership began with sponsorship of a conference in Nuremberg in 2002 called “The Organic Guarantee System: the need and strategy for harmonization and equivalence.” Shortly thereafter, we convened the International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture (ITF), which analyzed the situation, examined potential solutions and developed tools and recommendations for implementing solutions. The tools provide ways to improve the efficiency and standardization of processes for assessing equivalence of organic standards and certification performance requirements. In 2009 we embarked on a follow-up project entitled “Global Organic Market Access” (GOMA) which aimed to create even more awareness of the need for increasing organic market access, and to disseminate the recommendations and tools of the ITF and facilitate their implementation.

At this high-level international conference, the partners draw together a distinguished group of public and private sector leaders to examine the past, present and future of organic market access relative to systems of organic standards and conformity assessment. Developments and challenges for dominant and emerging exporting/importing economies and for still-developing countries are highlighted and discussed