Biokontroll Hungária Nonprofit Ltd. has been inspecting and certifying organic farmers and the supply chain actors in Hungary for more than 20 years. The company is owned by the Hungarian Biokultúra Federation, which developed from the movement that had started its pioneering activity to support, popularize and propagate organic farming and the consumption of organic products in our country. Let us give an outline of what inspection and certification system means, so what makes organic – organic.
Organic production is subject to uniform regulations concerning the different fields all over the world, also in the European Union (see Regulations), but this can be diversified by different, in most cases more stringent private standards – especially in case of trademark use.
Therefore it is very important to know that the task of inspection is not to test the products in a laboratory and to consider it as organic if they are found free of any harmful pesticide residues, but the inspection bodies all over the world shall ensure through their careful and continuous examination that the organic products have been produced in according to the regulations mentioned above. Let us see what it means in practice.
As a first step the person or holding intending to produce or trade organic products must sign a contract and register to us (as inspection body) by completing the registration form. Then we send all information to them that are needed later, such as Data sheet for registration, the Organic system description, the contract, our standards and other information documents and forms, which shall be kept by the partners continuously and precisely during their activities in the future (see Document library).
From the date of the contract or from the date fixed in the contract the regulations shall be fully kept. In case of crop production or animal husbandry a so-called conversion period is required after which the product can be marketed as organic, but during this period the regulations shall be fully complied with.
The production process is inspected on the premises at all the operators at least once a year at a previously arranged time. In some cases further announced (or unannounced) inspections are performed. Inspection and evaluation is followed by certification, certainly on the basis of the information and collected data included in the inspection report. The certification decision is made by the certifiers working in our office, and later all of our clients receive a written notification on that. The Certificate issued to the name of the operator for the activity carried out under our inspection and all the products which may be traded with organic (or in-conversion) labelling are included in the Annex of this document. The certificate is valid usually until the end of the following year, or until the issuance of the new certificate.
In case you would like to register in the inspection system, or you are interested in the registration process, do not hesitate to contact us on the contact details provided.