The Ministry of Commerce launched NPOP (National Programme for Organic production) in March 2000, designed to establish national standards for organic products, which could then be sold under the logo “India organic”. For the proper implementation of NPOP, NAPP (National Accreditation Policy and Programme) has been formulated with Accreditation Regulations announced in May 2001. These make it mandatory that all certification bodies whether international or foreign operating in the country must be accredited by an Accreditation Agency.
There are 6 Accreditation Agencies in India:
- Agricultural Processed Food Products Export Development Authority(APEDA)
- Coffee board
- Spices board
- Coconut Developmental Board
- Tea Board
- Directorate of Cashew and Cocoa development
APEDA has recognised the following inspection certification bodies, all of these are able to certify based on the NPOP:
- BVQ1 (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Mumbai)
- Ecocert SA (Aurangabad)
- IMO Control Private Limited (Bangalore)
- Indian Organic Certification Agency (INDOCERT, Aluva)
- International Resources for farmer trade members
- Lacon Quality Certification Pvt. Ltd. (Theepany. Kerala)
- National organic certification Association Pvt. Ltd. (Pune)
- One Cert Asia Agri Certification Pvt. Ltd. (Jaipur)
- SGS India Pvt. Ltd. (Gurgaon)
- Skal International (Bangalore)
- Uttaranchal State Organic Certification Agency (Uttaranchal)
Many of the Indian farmers are small and poor farmers, who may not be able to afford the cost of certification. For this, group certification processes like Internal Control System (ICS) and Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) have come as alternative means of certification to reduce the cost of certification.
