Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s (DAFF) Food and Organics Access Team Director, Amber Wood (left), and Organic Export Program Director, Suze Rose (right). Photo: Kit Photography
The Federal Government will seek to include organic wine in the coming trade negotiations with the European Union and Japan, in a bid to boost the market access of Australia’s growing certified organic industry.
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) Food and Organics Access team director, Amber Wood, told the 2024 Australian Organics Conference the role of DAFF’s Export Standards Branch is to gain, improve and maintain market access for all foods, including organic food and beverages.
“We negotiate the agreed conditions of market access, and we develop the Australian positions on the international standards of food products,” Wood told the audience of more than 100 organic industry figures in Melbourne.
She said a priority in the coming negotiations with the European Union, which is renewing its equivalency arrangements with all trading partners, will be the inclusion of organic wine.
“We’re hoping to expand the scope of the agreement,” said Wood.
“First and foremost, we’d like to include organic wine into the scope of the agreement and aquaculture as well.
Wood said EU officials were scheduled to visit Australia this month, when they will meet with Australian officials, certifying bodies and organic wine producers.
“The next cab off the rank after this work with the EU will be Japan, including wine or alcoholic beverages,” she said.
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Organic Export program director, Suze Rose, said the government has also, for the first time, begun capturing data on certified organic exports.
“We introduced in January more consistent, more streamlined data analysis and collection of all the export organic exports that do go out,” she said.
“It’s going to take some time to build that view of what sort of products are going out and we want to make some iterative improvements… and make it consistent with what other countries are doing as well.”
Australian Organic Limited Chief executive officer, Niki Ford, said it’s a significant development that will help to better measure the contribution of the Australian certified organic industry.
“This is exciting because Australian Organic’s Market Report is the only publication to collect and report data on behalf of the industry,” Ford said.
“This will now give us a greater visibility of the industry, its trends and growth, and will drive further insights for industry, which has been a significant gap for the organic sector.”
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