A couple of years ago, the UNE standard for the regulation of organic farming inputs was approved.
This standard was developed by AENOR (the Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certification) with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
This is the creation of a Spanish regulation, which extends the provisions of the European regulation RCE 834/2007 on organic inputs. Therefore, it is currently only applied in Spain, but Portugal is expected to follow us in the implementation of this regulation.
The idea was to unify the criteria that an agricultural input must follow in order to be considered organic in Spain and thus be certified as such according to the new criteria.
This standardisation affects agricultural products (inputs) such as fertilisers and pesticides.
Currently, it seems that this regulation is finally starting to be applied and at Barcelonesa we are putting everything in place to adapt to it.
How are we going to do it?
We will tell you about it later, but first let’s take a look at what the UNE regulation consists of.
The UNE standard for the regulation of organic agricultural inputs
UNE is the acronym for Una Norma Española and consists of a series of standards created in the technical standardisation committees (CTN) of AENOR.
In this case, the UNE for Organic Agricultural is created to extend the aforementioned European document, which is made up of:
- UNE 142500:2017: on inputs usable in organic plant production, which establishes the criteria to be met by fertilisers, amendments and substrates for cultivation.
- UNE 315500:2017: on inputs to be used in organic plant production, which regulates products for the management of pests and diseases.
- UNE 66500:2017: applicable to certification bodies. This contains the minimum requirements that must be met to certify inputs that can be used in Organic Agricultural, according to the first two UNE.
Organic Agricultural is increasingly occupying more and more hectares of land in Spain, as well as becoming more and more important in our market.
This is why, at the same time, the demand for organic fertilisers and phytosanitary products has increased, and therefore unified criteria are needed to regulate their use.
Consequently, this standard lists the requirements to be met by manufacturers of inputs for Organic Agricultural production, so that the crop can continue receiving the Organic Agricultural product certificate.
At Barcelonesa’s agrochemical division we work to help our clients in the supply of:
- Specialities for the production of inputs.
- Agrochemical raw materials to be used as a basis for the production of fertilisers and nutrient deficiency correctors for plants.
So it is also our turn to do our bit in relation to the UNE standard for Organic Agricultural.
At Barcelonesa we are adapting to the new UNE standard criteria.
Agricultural certification entities such as CAAE and SHC have already announced that from January 2021 they will be certifying according to these criteria of the UNE standard.
As a result, many of our customers have already started to move to adapt to this regulation. And of course, we have also certified ourselves to meet the requirements of the UNE 142500:2017 standard.
Our commitment to adapt to the new reality includes the certifications, among others, of the following products:
- Amino acids of animal and vegetable origin.
- Biostimulants of algae origin.
- Deficiency correctors such as liquid boron.
On the other hand, with the aim of marketing our products in all international markets, at Barcelonesa we also continue to certify products with other certifying bodies such as:
- CAAE: for Spain (UNE).
- Ecocert: for the European Union and the United States (NOP).
- OKO: for the European Union and Japan (JAS).
By continuing along these lines, we will be able to continue to offer our customers our full range of environmentally friendly, yet efficient harvesting solutions.
Do you manufacture products for organic agriculture?
The UNE Standard is a reality in Spain and at Barcelonesa we are ready to assist our clients.
Contact us and find out about the solutions we can offer you. You will be sure that they have updated certifications, and you will be able to continue with your production as you have been doing up to now.
If you have any questions, please contact us via the ”contact” button below and our specialised team will get back to you as soon as possible.
