What is wrong?

Albrecht Benzing, CERES - CERtification of Environmental Standards - GmbH
Albrecht Benzing is Quality Manager at CERES GmbH. A studied Agronomist, he worked for many years in development co-operation in South America. Since 2000 in organic certification, since 2004 one of the managers of CERES GmbH, responsible for quality assurance. At the BIOFACH 2020 congress session "Fraud, gaps and loopholes: private and public counteractions and enforcement to complement regulations", Albrecht presented his thoughts on what leads to some of the integrity problems we have in the organic sector.

Regarding the question "what is wrong with the certifiers?", Albrecht assumes that some certifiers, being private businesses, struggle in keeping the balance between economics and integrity. Corruption, competition, the lack of competence, counterproductive remuneration schemes and other factors sometimes outweigh a certifier’s professional pride, his fear of losing reputation and accreditation and the inspector’s personal integrity. As a consequence, some inspectors turn a blind eye on problems that they encounter during inspection. Albrecht suggests that this misbalance has to be addressed by supporting certifiers and establishing stronger oversight systems that deal with the "real issues" and don't get stuck in bureaucracy. He concluded his presentation with a few suggestions on what could be done better to improve the situation.

Please have a look at the video below and feel free to flick through the powerpoint-slides from the presentation underneath.

Video

Powerpoint Slides

 

 

Latest News

1 Feb 2012

Organic conference in parallel to Ecology Izmir on April 13...

Read more
16 Dec 2011

12am - 4pm, at Nuremberg, BioFach / Congress Center (NCC...

Read more
13 Dec 2011

Test free software for mobile inspections and audits.

Read more
5 Dec 2011

Please join us at one of our exciting presentations.

Read more
30 Nov 2011

In November 2011, Frank Gerriets and Verena Hess of Organic...

Read more
18 Oct 2011

Participate or exhibit CO2 neutral at BioFach fair and...

Read more
17 Oct 2011

– download a free trial version with no obligation!

Read more
20 Sep 2011

EU decides on uniform food labelling

Read more
19 Sep 2011

September 26 to October 5, 2011 in Gyeonggi Paldang /...

Read more
5 Sep 2011

The conference will take place for the fourth time on...

Read more
9 Aug 2011

download the software and try it out - it is completely free...

Read more
25 Jul 2011

Carbon assessments throughout the product chain - possible...

Read more
20 Jul 2011

Call for Papers – your ideas and suggestions are needed!

Read more
28 Jun 2011

Soil and Water – Handle with Care! Changing threats into...

Read more
22 Jun 2011

Up to date facts and figures about the organic market in...

Read more
18 Jun 2011

Organic Services supports Colombian companies and producer...

Read more
16 Jun 2011

Results of the consumer survey on organic consumption in...

Read more
15 Jun 2011

Organic Services and its partner company Intact have been...

Read more
15 Jun 2011
6 Jun 2011

EHEC keeps Europe in suspense – traceability has to be a...

Read more
24 May 2011

efficient electronic auditing with Ecert Onsite

Read more
23 May 2011

The organic product fair and conference took place on May 12...

Read more