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Organic stores selling chemical food
Most of the organic store owners in the city have been minting money from the consumers in the name of organic food (cultivated without using pesticides or any chemicals). Even the certification bodies are not properly regularised and the word ‘organic’ is now just being used as a marketing strategy, where the store keepers are charging whopping amount for chemically grown products.
Hyderabad: Most of the organic store owners in the city have been minting money from the consumers in the name of organic food (cultivated without using pesticides or any chemicals). Even the certification bodies are not properly regularised and the word ‘organic’ is now just being used as a marketing strategy, where the store keepers are charging whopping amount for chemically grown products.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) gives a National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) certification to the farms after doing an annual inspection for three years. It takes minimum 2 to 3 years for the soil to make the shift (to get rid of any contaminations). But most of the organic stores are selling their produce within one year of cultivation.
It is not mandatory for a store to get an organic certification from any authorised body. “However, if the brand is labelled organic then all the products sold should be organic; if not the customer can sue the brand under the consumer act,” said G V Ramanjanailu, Executive Director of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
Many organic stores mushroomed in the city since there has been a rapid growth in this sector and people are paying double the price for the goods, believing that they are pesticides free.
“But the customers are not aware if the products are organic or not. Also, there are no labels mentioning the certification numbers on fruits and vegetables, which makes it even harder for the customer to know the authenticity of the produce,” he further added.
“I regularly buy goods from organic stores though they are expensive because healthy food is essential for us and I believe in the saying ‘we are what we eat’. But I never had a doubt about the genuineness of the products because they usually have a certification on all their products,” said Spandana, 29-year old entrepreneur.
Meanwhile, there are two authorised bodies to certify organic food in India; NPOP and Participatory Guarantee System of India (PGS). “A license number is printed on the label of the certified products that can be traced back by the customers and if they want to know the product is organic or not they have to file a complaint or send the samples for testing,” said Sudhakar, regional in-charge of the APEDA.
He also said that there is adulteration in these businesses and also sometimes the farmer himself is not fully aware of the guidelines given by the APEDA.
By: Tera Sneha Reddy
