The Turkish Regulation on the Principles and Implementation of Organic Farming, published in the Official Gazette No. 27676, defines the Operator as ‘a natural or legal person engaged in organic farming activities’ and in Article 6 states that the operator may carry out organic farming activity individually or with a producer group.

According to the Turkish Organic Farming Regulation, the producer group can only carry out organic farming activities under legal entities. If the operator carries out organic farming activity with a producer group, a contract must be signed with each producer. In this case, the operator signs a contract with the authorized body on behalf of the producer group. Farmers within the producer group are considered operators and are registered with a code.

According to Article 39; An inspector inspects a maximum of four operators in one day. In the case of a producer group, this number is limited to a maximum of six.

In the Turkish Organic Farming Regulation; the rules on the formation and management of the producer group are not specified, and during the inspection visit of the authorized control body to the operator, each producer included in the producer group is inspected in the same way as an individual operator.

In the updated European Union Organic Farming Regulation, as well as in other Regulations and Standards, the rules regarding the structure and management of the group of operator are specified in detail. Accordingly, each group member is not inspected by the authorized control body; instead, the functioning of the group of operator and the internal control system are inspected, and a certain proportion of group members are inspected.

Below you may find a summary of the rules on group of operators, especially in the European Union Organic Farming Regulation and the United States National Organic Program (USDA-NOP). If you are also interested in group of operator certification according to private standards such as Bio Suisse, Demeter, we strongly recommend that you review the relevant standards and receive information from the control body.

With regard to organic production and the labeling of organic products, the Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018, in the basic act, implementing regulations and delegated supplementing regulations, has constantly used the terms operator and group of operator together in the sentences when referring to the operator, has set very detailed rules on group of operators and emphasized that group of operators are different from individual operators.

In Regulation (EU) 2018/848, the rules on the formation of the group of operator are explained in Article 36, which is one of the longest articles of the Regulation.

Basically, each group of operators shall;

(a) only be composed of members who are farmers engaged in processing, preparation or placing on the market of food or feed;

(b) only be composed of members:

(i) of which the individual certification cost represents more than 2 % of each member’s turnover or standard output of organic production and whose annual turnover of organic production is not more than EUR 25 000 or whose standard output of organic production is not more than EUR 15 000 per year; or

(ii) who have each holdings of maximum:

— five hectares,

— 0.5 hectares, in case of greenhouse, or

— 15 hectares, exclusively in the case of permanent grassland;

For the products produced by the group, a joint marketing system must be set up and an ‘internal control system’ including a documented set of control activities and procedures must be established.

An Internal Control System (ICS) Manager and one or more Internal Control System (ICS) inspectors, who may be members of the group, must be appointed.

(EU)2021/279 – Commission Implementing Regulation laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council on controls and other measures ensuring traceability and compliance in organic production and the labelling of organic productss, in Articles 4, 5 and 6, lays down additional rules for the certification of group of operators. According to these;

A member of a group of operators shall register to only one group of operators for a given product, also where the operator is engaged in different activities related to that product.

The maximum size of a group of operators shall be 2 000 members.

Group of Operators shall keep certain documents and records for the purposes of the system for internal controls (ICS).

The ICS Manager shall immediately notify the control body of the following information:

(a) any suspicion of major and critical non-compliance;

(b) any suspension or withdrawal of a member or a production unit or premises, including purchase and collection centres, from the group;

(c) any prohibition of the placing on the market of a product as organic or in-conversion, including the name of the member or members concerned, the relevant quantities and lot identification.

(EU)2021/771 – Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council by laying down specific criteria and conditions for the checks of documentary accounts in the framework of official controls in organic production and the official controls of groups of operators, describes the rules for the inspection of group of operators by the control body.

The competent authority or, where appropriate, the control authority or control body, shall apply risk assessment to select the sample of the members of the group of operators for the re-inspections. In doing so, it shall take into account at least the volume and the value of the production and the assessment of the likelihood of non-compliance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/848. Re-inspections shall be carried out physically on the spot with the presence of the members selected. ( At least 5% of group members, not less than 10 members, are re-inspected annually. In cases where the group operator has 10 or fewer members, all members are re-inspected)

The competent authority or, where appropriate, the control authority or control body, shall carry out witness audits in order to verify the competence and knowledge of ICS inspectors.

According to (EU) 2021/1698 – Commission Delegated Regulation, Article 12, the control body shall carry out sampling on at least 2% of the members of each group.

For details of the rules on group of operators in the European Union Organic Farming Regulation, you may refer to the regulations mentioned.

In the United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program (USDA-NOP), the definition and rules of group operations updated with Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) are as follows:

In § 205.2 Definitions, new definitions regarding group operatios have been added. For example;

Producer group operation. A producer, organized as a person, consisting of producer group members and production units in geographic proximity governed by an internal control system under one organic system plan and certification.

Producer group production unit. A defined subgroup of producer group members in geographic proximity within a single producer group operation that use shared practices and resources to produce similar agricultural products.

Producer group member. An individual engaged in the activity of producing or harvesting agricultural products as a member of a producer group operation.

Internal control system. An internal quality management system that establishes and governs the review, monitoring, training, and inspection of the producer group operation, and the procurement and distribution of shared production and handling inputs and resources, to maintain compliance with the USDA organic regulations.

In § 205.201, a new item ‘c’ has been added for the organic system plan requirements of group operations. Accordingly, the organic system plan of a producer group operation must describe the internal control system. For example;

The internal control system must define the organizational structure, roles,  and responsibilities of all personnel. It must define geographic proximity criteria for producer group members and producer group production units. It must describe how shared resources, including production practices and inputs, are procured and provided to all producer group members and personnel. For further explanations, see § 205.201-c.

In § 205.400, a new item ‘g’ has been added for the general certification requirements of producer group operations. Accordingly, producer group operations must comply with the rules set out in § 205.400 in addition to the rules set out in item ‘g’. For example; a producer group operation must be organized as a person. Centralized processing, distribution and marketing facilities and systems must be used. Procedures must be implemented to ensure that all production and processing carried out by the producer group operations comply with USDA organic regulations and the Act. For further explanations, see § 205.400-g.

In § 205.403-a, a new paragraph explaining the inspection of producer group operations has been added. Accordingly;

The inspection of a producer group operations must:

(i) include the review of internal controls carried out by the internal control system,

(ii) Conduct witness audits of internal control system inspectors performing inspections of the producer group operationt,

(iii) Individually inspect at least 1.4 times the square root or 2% of the total number of producer group members, whichever is higher. All producer group members determined to be high risk by the certifying agent must be inspected. At least one producer group member in each producer group production unit must be inspected.

(iv) Inspect each handling facility.