EU: Ten-Year Reprieve For Organic Hydroponic Growers

The European Union has published its new organic regulation, which will enter into force on January 1, 2021. For organic hydroponic growers, the following passage is of interest, which states that operations certified as organic before June 28, 2017, may continue growing on their production surfaces for another ten years following the date of application of the Regulation.

"As organic plant production is based on nourishing the plants primarily through the soil ecosystem, plants should be produced on and in living soil in connection with the subsoil and bedrock. Consequently, hydroponic production should not be allowed, nor growing plants in containers, bags or beds where the roots are not in contact with the living soil.

"However, certain cultivation practices which are not soil-related, such as the production of sprouted seeds or chicory heads and the production of ornamentals and herbs in pots that are sold in pots to the consumers, for which the principle of soil-related crop cultivation is not adapted or for which no risk exists that the consumer is misled regarding the production method, should be allowed. In order to facilitate organic production at an earlier growing stage of plants, growing seedlings or transplants in containers for further transplanting should also be permitted. 

"The principle of land-related crop cultivation and the nourishing of plants primarily through the soil ecosystem was established by Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. Some operators have, however, developed an economic activity by growing plants in ‘demarcated beds’ and have been certified as organic under Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 by their national authorities. An agreement has been reached within the ordinary legislative procedure on 28 June 2017 that the organic production should be based on nourishing the plants primarily through the soil ecosystem and be soil-related, and that growing plants in demarcated beds should not be allowed anymore from that date.

In order to give the operators who have developed such economic activity until that date the possibility to adapt, they should be allowed to maintain their production surfaces, if they were certified as organic under Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 before that date by their national authorities, for further 10 years after the date of application of this Regulation. On the basis of the information provided by Member States to the Commission, such activity had only been authorised in the Union before 28 June 2017 in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The use of demarcated beds in organic agriculture should be subject to a report of the Commission which is to be published five years after the date of application of this Regulation."

Click here to read the full Regulation.

Publication date: 6/22/2018