Due to the Covid-19 pandemic experienced between 2020 and 2022; on April 28, 2020, the “Turkish Regulation on the Principles and Implementation of Organic Farming” published in the Official Gazette No.31112 added Additional Article-2 to the Regulation with the purpose of making arrangements due to force majeure. Accordingly:
“(1) In the event of the occurrence of force majeure such as earthquake, flood, fire, and epidemic disease, which prevents the implementation of control operations by authorized bodies, the Ministry may regulate certain procedures and principles of control and certification services regarding the frequency of annual controls, the number of announced and unannounced controls, and the validity periods of certificates.”

In the event of the occurrence of force majeure as described above, the General Directorate of Plant Production under Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry sends an official notification to the authorized control body regarding the procedures and principles of control and certification services in line with the force majeure conditions. The notifications issued by the General Directorate of Plant Production due to force majeure are valid for a specific period. Therefore, in the event of the occurrence of the force majeure situations defined above, your authorized control body is required to comply with the written instructions notified to you in accordance with the notification sent by the General Directorate of Plant Production. For example, in the event that the Government closes off, quarantines, or imposes travel restrictions on a region to avoid putting people’s health and safety at risk, compliance with the relevant rules is mandatory.

The IAF – International Accreditation Forum explains the management of extraordinary events or situations affecting accreditation bodies, conformity assessment bodies, and certified organizations, defining:
“Extraordinary Event or Circumstances: a situation generally referred to as ‘force majeure’ or a ‘natural disaster’ and outside the control of the organization.” Examples include: war, strike, riot, political instability, geopolitical tension, terrorism, crime, epidemic or pandemic outbreak, flood, earthquake, malicious computer hacking, other natural or human-made disasters.

The European Union’s New Organic Farming Regulation — “Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007” — also added certain definitions to the Regulation to identify force majeure and more clearly define situations that could affect organic production. These are:

• Adverse climatic event: means weather conditions, such as frost, storms and hail, ice, heavy rain or severe drought, which can be assimilated to a natural disaster.

• Environmental incident: means a specific occurrence of pollution, contamination or degradation in the quality of the environment which is related to a specific event and is of limited geographical scope; but does not cover general environmental risks not connected with a specific event, such as climate change or atmospheric pollution.

• Natural disaster: means a naturally occurring event of a biotic or abiotic nature that leads to important disturbances in agricultural production systems or forest structures, eventually causing important economic damage to the farming or forestry sectors.

• Catastrophic event: means an unforeseen event of a biotic or abiotic nature caused by human action that leads to important disturbances in agricultural production systems or forest structures, eventually causing important economic damage to the farming or forestry sectors.

The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1698  of 13 July 2021 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council with procedural requirements for the recognition of control authorities and control bodies that are competent to carry out controls on operators and groups of operators certified organic and on organic products in third countries and with rules on their supervision and the controls and other actions to be performed by those control authorities and control bodies— provides:

Article 28: Recognition of Catastrophic Circumstances
‘Adverse climatic event’, ‘environmental incident’, ‘natural disaster’ or ‘catastrophic event’ or any similar situation may be recognized as a catastrophic circumstance, where possible, on the basis of a declaration made by the competent authorities of the third country where the event occurred. If such a statement is not available, any such recognition by the control authority or control body shall be based on data provided by official organisations justifying the catastrophic circumstances.

Article 29: Conditions for derogations

1. Following the recognition referred to in Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1698, a control authority or control body may grant the relevant derogations (exceptions for non-organic plant reproductive material) provided for in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2020/2146, in the affected area, upon identification of the affected operators or upon request from the relevant group of operators or individual operators, subject to the validity of these derogations and conditions, and under the following terms:
   a. for a limited period and no longer than necessary, and in no case longer than 12 months, to continue or recommence organic production as carried out before the date of application of those derogations;
   b. in relation to specifically affected types of production or, where relevant, land parcels; and
   c. to the individual operator or the member of the group of operators concerned.

2. The application of the derogations referred to in paragraph 1 shall be without prejudice to the validity of the certificates referred to in point (b)(i) of Article 45(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 during the period where the derogations apply, provided that the operator or
   operators concerned fulfil the conditions under which derogations were granted.

3. Control authorities and control bodies shall immediately notify the European Commission, the Member States, and, in the case of a control body, its accreditation body of the derogations granted under this Regulation. In particular, the control authority or control body shall indicate the name of the operator concerned, the duration of the derogation, the type of production or, where applicable, the land parcels concerned, and the justification for the derogation, and shall include a statement of the competent authority of the third country referred to in Article 28. In the absence of such a declaration, the control authority or control body shall justify its absence and provide the relevant data on which the recognition is based.

4. The control authority or control body shall ensure that any operator to whom the granted derogations apply keep documentary evidence relating to the granted derogations as well as documentary evidence on the use of those derogations during the period where those derogations apply.