According to a document of the Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (ICOA), Central America and the Dominican Republic have more than 253,332 acres of organic farming and 49,181 producers dedicated to these crops.
Based on data from 2012, the competent authorities of organic production in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic, that are part of the CIAO, noted that 223,417 acres of organic crops were certified, while 29,905 were in transition.
Of this group, the Dominican Republic is the country with the largest number of hectares for organic production (166,200), followed by Nicaragua (26,252), Honduras (23,827), Guatemala (12,549), Costa Rica (9,353), Panama (4,563) and El Salvador (4,500).
The Dominican Republic is also positioned first in surface transition to these crops with 16,420 hectares, followed by Nicaragua (7,923), Guatemala (4,023), Honduras (1,379) and Costa Rica (159).
To facilitate regional trade of these products and promote the development of their markets, the Agricultural Council approved in 2012 the harmonization of regional regulations for organic production between Central America and the Dominican Republic.
This regulation controls production, processing, marketing, exports, imports and labelling of organic products of vegetable and animal origin.
Furthermore, the IICA and the CIAO developed a tool for the Assessment, Planning and Strengthening of the National Control Systems (CNS) of Organic Production. This tool, called the EPF, assesses the state of the CNS by analysing its components to determine how optimal the system is and develops proposals to strengthen it.
Source: Fao.org