NASAA Certified Organic collapse hits hundreds of producers

Another organic producer has spoken out after the shock collapse of certification body NASAA Certified Organic as the full list of affected producers is revealed.

Organic brands have been left scrambling by a certifier collapse. Photo: Supplied

Another organic producer has spoken out following the collapse of certification body NASAA Certified Organic (NCO) as the full list of affected producers is revealed.

Hundreds of farmers, food producers and cosmetics manufacturers have been left scrambling after NCO fell into administration on Tuesday, including close to 200 operators in Victoria and close to 100 in each of South Australia and NSW.

NCO provided certification services to more than 400 organic operators in Australia, including well-known brands Bellamy’s Organic, Bertocchi Smallgoods, Constellation Wines, Fonterra Australia, Sunbeam Foods, Jurlique and Swisse Wellness.

The list includes dozens of wineries and grape growers, meat product manufacturers, olive oil makers, seafood companies and major dairy groups.

There are also dozens of fruit and vegetable growers on the list, including SA Organic Strawberrries – a grower based at Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills.

Owner Plamen Paraskevov, who previously worked with NASAA (National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia) as an organic inspector, said he would be seeking answers from NASAA management following NCO’s demise.

“At first I was bewildered when I saw the official email, and then that was replaced with a bit of anger, because when you decide to cease operations there’s normally a winding down process, and it didn’t happen like that in this case,” he said.

“I will be seeking an explanation from the NASAA board because that’s unacceptable.

“We have an obligation to our customers – we supply Woolworths with certified organic strawberries, we supply some Foodlands, other smaller customers as well.”

SA Organic Strawberries owners Plamen Paraskevov and Sonja Bognarova. Picture: John Kruger

Mr Paraskevov said that while he had managed to transfer his certification to another provider – Australian Certified Organic (ACO) – there were other issues producers would face in the wake of NCO’s collapse.

“One downside of something like this is that in our storage we have more than 200,000 punnets with NASAA labels on them,” he said.

“Starting our season in October, we will be running with our former labels – we have 12 months to deplete our packaging.”

Products certified by NCO are marked with its ‘spring leaf’ label, meaning they meet federal government standards for exporting legitimate organic products.

However after terminating trade on June 26 due to “escalating financial pressures”, NCO’s directors called in administrators on Tuesday to take control of the company.

Bellamy's Organic is one of hundreds of organic producers that were certified by NCO. Picture: Peter Hemphill

The collapse means affected operators are prevented from exporting organic-labelled products until they transition to one of four alternative certifiers. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) has imposed a deadline of September 26.

Industry body Australian Organic Limited said it was working alongside DAFF and the other certification bodies – Australian Certified Organic, Southern Cross Certified, Bio-dynamic Research Institute and Organic Food Chain – to support affected operators.

“This moment demonstrates how far the organic industry has come in its ability to work together,” Australian Organic Limited chief executive Jackie Brian said.

“We’ve united quickly in the interests of producers and the broader organic supply chain, and we thank DAFF for its proactive and constructive role throughout this process.”

Originally published as NASAA Certified Organic collapse hits hundreds of producers