Delisting of 5 Indian Certification Bodies by the European Commission has no impact on GOTS supply chain

Communication to certified entities dealing with the purchase of certified raw fibres from India

Impact of the delisting of 5 Indian Certification Bodies by the European Commission for Category A (Unprocessed plant products) on the GOTS supply chain

As you are aware, as a processing standard, GOTS certification begins with the relevant first processing stage of textile fibres. Before accepting raw materials into the GOTS certified supply chian, first processors have to ensure that the raw materials they purchase are certified to an organic production standard that is approved in the IFOAM Family of Standards for the relevant scope of the production (crop or animal production). Included in this family of standards is the India Organic Regulation and the EU Organic Regulation. 

On 5th October 2021, the European Commission proposed, through a draft amendment of regulation EC 1235/2008, to delist five certification bodies (CBs) from India, namely Ecocert India, Control Union India, Indocert, Lacon India, and OneCert International from the Annex III of the regulation which essentially meant that they would not be able to certify organic farm production (such as organic cotton) to the EU Organic Regulation. 

The five CB’s mentioned above will be officially removed from the list of control bodies recognised by the EU Commission once the regulation is shortly published and is expected to be effective from 1st January 2022. This is applicable for Category A (unprocessed plant products) exports to the European Union. 

Following some queries by GOTS certified entities on the subject, GOTS would like to address possible concerns by all stakeholders to avoid any ambiguity.

Please note that four of these five CBs possess NPOP[1] accreditation from APEDA [2] (Ecocert India, Control Union India, Indocert, Lacon India). 

For more details of NPOP accredited CBs refer to APEDA’s website. 

Being recognised in the IFOAM Family of Standards, GOTS recognises the NPOP standard as one of the primary raw fibre certifications for input into the GOTS certified supply chain. It follows, therefore, that the delisting of the four CBs has no impact on the GOTS certified entities so long as they continue to purchase authentic certified organic raw materials from a supplier certified by a recognised NPOP accredited certification body in India. 

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For more information, contact: Prachi Gupta ()

Note: APEDA has suspended OneCert International for a period of 1 year effective from 20.10.2021, wherein while this suspension is in force, no raw fibre TC can be issued by OneCert International.

[1] National Programme for Organic Production

[2] Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority