The Indo-German Agricultural Market Development (AMD) Project completed it third Study tour to Germany scheduled from 12-18 January 2025 with Indian delegation led by Shri Navin Kumar Vidyarthi, Adviser (Agriculture Marketing), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. The Indian delegation comprised of 8 members from Marketing Division of DA&FW, National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming, The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), TradeDoot Agriculture Marketing Solutions Private Limited”, Green Blossom Agritech Ventures Pvt Ltd and Neetacha Enterprises LLP along with the AMD project team.
The main objectives of the study tour was to understand the organic farming value chain in Germany, in particular concerning the organic farming certification processes and learn from the practical operations like Organic certification standards, German Bio-Siegel and EU-Organic, Private organic standard: Naturland, Certification body: ABCERT, Organic Research: University of Hohenheim – Center for Organic Farming, FiBL, Organic processing company/retailer: Alnatura. Germany is renowned for its strong and well-established organic farming sector, characterized by robust certification procedures that ensure the integrity of organic products. The German experience offers valuable insights into effective certification systems, which can be instructive for India as it seeks to enhance and streamline its own certification processes for organic farming. The study tour also focused to develop a detailed understanding on how the inspection schemes and procedures under EU organic farming legislation are organized in Germany.
During the study tour, meeting and visits were conducted at Federal Ministry of Agriculture -BMEL, Naturland – Verband für ökologischen Landbau e.V., (Association for organic farming), Certification body ABCERT AG, Organic Research Institute FiBL – Forschungsinstitut für Biologischen Landbau Deutschland (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) and Retailer/processor Alnatura, an organic food company.
During the study tour, all the delegates along with the AMD team participated in the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) from 15-17 January 2025 in Berlin, Germany and Grüne Woche – Green Week. Several meetings and in addition, contacts were established with government officials as well as stakeholders from the private sector engaged in the organic sector worldwide.
