Australian Certified Organic achieves equivalence with Swiss organic standards

The Australian Certified Organic Standard has achieved equivalence with organic standards in Switzerland. This means that Australian businesses exporting their Australian Certified Organic (ACO) products to Switzerland no longer need to obtain Swiss organic certification or use import permits.

Switzerland has recognised the Australian Certified Organic Standard as operating in compliance with its organic requirements.

While the Swiss export market is not large, this change reduces the amount of paperwork for Australian businesses exporting to Switzerland, according to www.austorganic.com.

The national organic standard in Australia has an equivalency agreement for plant and plant-processed products; however, because ACO has its own, stricter standard, ACO-certified products like wine and livestock can now also be exported to Switzerland.

ACO has equivalency agreements with Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and the European Union.