Support for BALKAN BIOCERT Ltd.

History

During the long standing cooperation between FiBL and its Bulgarian Partners, the lack of a local certification service for organic farmers seemed to be a serious obstacle in the further development of the organic sector in the country. Therefore, Bioselena and FiBL decided to support the establishment of a Bulgarian inspection and certification company.

An assessment of the conditions was done and additional Bulgarian stakeholders were mobilised. A detailed Project plan was then submitted to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, (seco) for funding and approved by the latter.

IMO, the Swiss Institute for Market Ecology, was selected as a technical partner and Bioselena was included as consultants regarding local conditions.

Local Capacity building

The goal of a local inspection and certification company is manifold: It offers certification services for local prices which makes this service also available for small and medium scale farmers. It facilitates the development of a domestic organic market, and it assures that the inspectors are well familiar with the local conditions.

The company

BALKAN BIOCERT LTD was registered in January 2003, as a private shareholder company, fully owned by Bulgarian shareholders. The nine shareholders of BALKAN BIOCERT are organisations active in the organic farming sector and rural development.
BALKAN BIOCERT offers inspection and certification services for organic production, processing and trade in Bulgaria and its neighbouring countries.

Its partners

FiBL supports BALKAN BIOCERT Management in the following points:

• consulting of the management in all aspects
• support for complying with accreditation requirements
• technical training of staff and committee members

The support of IMO focuses on technical issues such as:

• technical training of staff and committee members
• supervision and re-certification

The project is designed for a five years period

Further Information

Homepage: www.balkanbiocert.com
Press release (.pdf)

Contact

Marlene Heeb , FiBL