Invest for Jobs trains African businesses and government agencies for the now fully applicable EU Organic Regulation
On 15 October 2025, all organic certificates issued under the previous EU Organic Regulation and only recognised for import under a temporary exemption will lose their validity. After this date, only organic products certified in accordance with the current Organic Regulation 2018/848 may be imported into the EU.
The new, stricter EU regulation aims to provide greater consumer safety in the EU. However, complying with the new regulation is significantly more difficult and costly, particularly for small-scale farmers in the Global South. Will this cause many existing suppliers in organic supply chains in third countries to drop out, leading to higher prices for organic products? Probably yes.
According to the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), particularly for smallholder farms, it is very difficult to adapt to the complex new rules and bear the considerably increased costs. Therefore, there is currently a lot of uncertainty about which farms will continue, and which will decide against maintaining organic certification for the European market.
Almost all of them were audited under the new regulation for the first time this year. Reactions are mixed: some have already decided to stop organic farming or to focus on new markets. Many want to continue, but not all of them have received the new certificate yet. As the conditions for all organic producers have fundamentally changed, they must now evaluate whether organic certification is still sustainable given the increased costs and risks. The resulting price increases and supply bottlenecks are likely to affect importers, processors, and retailers in Germany - and, of course, the consumers.
In response to this, the Alliance for Product Quality, as part of Invest for Jobs, has worked with FiBL to conduct webinars and offer information material on the implementation of the new EU Organic Regulation. These offers have reached 250 people from 22 African countries, mainly from businesses and government agencies. Starting in October 2025, a group of facilitators will receive six months of training and support from FiBL experts on the changes of the new regulation. This will enable the facilitators to provide optimal support to farms and cooperatives in Ghana and Ethiopia as they adapt to the new regulation requirements. Specific changes relate, for example, to the permitted size of farms and the organization of internal control systems.
By providing information to stakeholders and ensuring direct support for affected farms by local experts in the partner countries, we aim to enable as many farms as possible to successfully transition and maintain their certification. This also ensures that the products can continue to be sold in our stores.
Through the Alliance for Product Quality, Invest for Jobs has already successfully supported over 100 African companies in obtaining internationally recognized certification. Around half of these certificates concern organic farming.