Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-27-Speech-3-365"
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"en.20060927.27.3-365"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the Commissioner, and the rapporteur for his report. Mr Parish has made the point that consumers place great faith in the word ‘organic’ and in organic produce, and we need to ensure that those who want to buy organic are actually getting what they believe is a very pure product. But the truth is – and I am indebted to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland for this gem of information, which I think we in this Chamber probably all know about – there is no recognised scientific test to differentiate organic and conventional produce. It means that we need to make sure that from the seed onwards there are checks and balances in the system. We probably have it right on paper, but it is in terms of implementation where this may fall down.
People are paying higher prices for organic produce. On the Irish market less than 1% of food is organic. We import 70% of our organic needs and again I have to refer to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, because there are over 70 countries listed. Some of them I would not have thought would be in the organic league I have to say, but they are on the list and I think that because they are on the list we need to reassure consumers, certainly in Ireland and across the EU, that if they buy organic produce from those countries, they meet the same standards of organic produce from within the European Union.
I think a paper trail is great and the EU is very good on that. My biggest concern relates to who is monitoring the control bodies and who is checking the auditors. This is a concern I have across all of our legislation and it is perhaps something that the Commissioner might address in the short time she has available to her. But yes, the organic sector is growing. It is a small sector, but I share Mr Parish’s concern that any crack in confidence will destroy it. It will destroy the market for producers, it will ruin consumer confidence and it is something we should seek to avoid. My fear is that some organic produce being imported into the EU is anything but organic."@en1
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