Alliance for Organic Integrity – Strengthening organic assurance globally
About Us
The Alliance was founded in 2019 by IOAS to improve organic integrity. Our mission, is to be the global multistakeholder Alliance that delivers the education, tools and resources needed to lift quality in organic control; maintaining the integrity of organic certification and consumer confidence in the organic label.
Our Story
The organic community has much to be proud of for collective efforts over the last 70 years to develop and grow the global organic assurance system. Continuous quality improvement has been and must remain a core value of our movement.
As a result of the well-documented benefits of organic, over the last 40 years the market has increased 20-fold and is now estimated to be worth over $115billion globally. But as organic has become increasingly mainstream, the burgeoning certification industry faces increasing pressure, competition and scrutiny: poor quality auditing, inconsistencies and high-profile fraud cases continue to undermine consumer confidence in the organic label.
If the organic market is to continue to grow and offer maximum environmental and social benefits, certification must be effective, rigorous, consistent across the globe, as well as continuously improving. The IOAS, the international organic accreditation body, is well placed to recognize the challenges facing organic inspection and certification and the limits of what accreditation can achieve.
In 2017 at a 20th anniversary event, IOAS brought together key actors from the organic sector to explore how to improve organic integrity beyond or besides accreditation.
The eventual outcome, was the founding of Alliance for Organic Integrity in 2019. As an independent not-for-profit The Alliance can go beyond regulation, undertaking work certifiers and accreditors cannot do.
The Alliance was tasked with 5 key strategic areas of work: harmonizing requirements, developing forensic tools, providing e-learning, combating fraud and communicating to the organic control community.
Four years on, the Alliance has established its foundations and several projects are underway. Our Board – who have a combined 150 years experience in organic control – guide our team to develop projects and deliver the high quality services needed to strengthen organic assurance, globally.
Our Aims
- Collaborate with stakeholders from industry, control bodies, government agencies and non-profits to share knowledge, innovations, resources and solutions for organic integrity.
- Promote the harmonization of organic requirements to enable more efficient and consistent application.
- Lift quality in organic inspection, certification and accreditation through education and training in best practice.
- Deliver tools that help prevent fraudulent products entering organic supply chains.
Our Values
We are committed to environmental and social betterment on a global level.
We are committed to learning and being solutions oriented.
We act with fairness, integrity and transparency in everything we do
