Regulation and certification of fertilizers for use in organic agriculture

The organic sector is a booming and continuously growing sector, so there is a great need for appropriate inputs for these productions.

Why are UNE standards needed?

Ecological certifications are carried out through private certifiers, which implies a wide variety of criteria and interpretations that do not go beyond the lists in Annexes I and II of the regulation:

• Regulation (EC) 834/2007 (to be replaced by regulation (EC) 848/2018).
• Regulation (EC) 889/2008.

This generates a need for unification, for which a common technical specification has been created, the objective of which is to try to clarify and classify these inputs on the market and thus to offer guarantees of compliance with what is foreseen by the law to farmers. This common legislation is what are called UNE standards:

• UNE 142500 Inputs that can be used in organic plant production. Fertilizers, amendments, and cultivation substrate.
• UNE 315500 Inputs that can be used in organic plant production. Products for the management of pests and diseases.
• Minimum UNE 66500 requirements for the certification of inputs that can be used in organic plant production according to UNE 142500 and UNE 315500 standards.

Some certifiers have promoted the application of these UNE standards from January 2021. But for the moment, these standards are voluntary, and it will be the market and the customers themselves who will have to impose their application, demanding quality parameters that ensure the security of the market for organic inputs.

Defeder, following its quality protocols, is already processing the homologations of its supplies certifications according to the UNE standards, in order to continue offering its customers all the guarantees on its organic products.