Switzerland expands organic food equivalence pact with Japan

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Markus Reubi, Deputy Head of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan (third from right) with Mayu Nishikawa, Director of Standards and Conformity Assessment Policy Office at MAFF’s Food Industry Affairs Bureau (center) and team members after a video conference with FOAG officials in Bern ©Ayako Suzuki

Swiss cheese and milk chocolate certified as organic by a Swiss certified body can now be sold in Japan with the JAS label, also known as “organic JAS”. Thanks to the agreement signed on 9 July between Switzerland’s Federal Office of Agriculture (FOAG) and Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF), Swiss exports of such livestock-based food can continue to be sold as organic in Japan without interruption when Japan enacts new rules beginning 16 July 2020.

In early 2018, MAFF informed the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan that it was planning to expand “organic JAS” labeling regulations to include livestock-based food. The Ministry said that growing Japanese consumer interest in organic food made the new regulation necessary as livestock-based food had been excluded from the existing “organic JAS” policy. Without the agreement, individual exporters would need to each obtain JAS certification to be labeled “organic JAS”.

Throughout the entire process, the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan has facilitated communication between FOAG and MAFF officials, including hosting a series of video conference meetings on embassy grounds between September 2019 and June 2020.

Prior to the 16 July enactment, Canada and Australia have completed similar organic equivalence agreements on livestock food with Japan.

More info.: FOAG statement (German), MAFF statement (Japanese)