Under the new Strengthening Organic Enforcement Rule most uncertified operations that were previously exempt are no longer exempt and must obtain organic certification by March 19, 2024. You can learn more about the new rules here: (link to Americert website SOE pages).
Americert Certified Operations:
· Americert strongly advises against using uncertified operations in organic supply chains.
· The use of uncertified operations in the supply chain represents significant compliance risk, fraud risk, and reputational risk.
· Any Americert certified operation must disclose the use of uncertified operations in the supply chain, have the operation complete an Uncertified Operation Affidavit and submit it to Americert, and pay the Uncertified Operation Review fee. As of Jan. 1, 2024, that fee will be $150 per uncertified operation that Americert must review.
· Once Americert has approved an uncertified operation in the supply chain, the Americert client must maintain the approved Uncertified Operation Affidavit and update it annually.
· The Americert certified operation completes Section A of the form and the uncertified operation completes sections B-E.
Uncertified Operations:
· Unless the operation is a retail operation with a physical store front selling products to the public, or is an operation only selling products with less than 70% organic content (where the only reference to organic is in the ingredient list), Americert requires that Americert certified operations have any uncertified operation in its supply chain complete and submit the Uncertified Operation Affidavit so that Americert can determine if the operation is exempt from certification.
· Most operations that may have been previously exempt from the requirement of obtaining certification are no longer exempt, including, in most cases: Brokers, traders, importers, exporters, distributors, business to business sales, retailers without a physical store front, ingredient procurement, warehouses that sell organic products, and other handler operations.
· Note that Americert does not make determinations about who needs to be certified except in the context of reviewing Americert certified operations’ supply chains. Operations which do not have relationships with Americert certified clients cannot request a determination about whether they need to be certified or not. We will not make such determinations.
· The Americert certified operation completes Section A of the form and the uncertified operation completes sections B-E.
The Uncertified Operation Affidavit can be downloaded from this link:
Directions and Guidance on the Use of the Form can be found here: