NEWSLETTER — SEPTEMBER 2025
Representing all certified organic operators
| Fire ants and public property register | One Organic Standard | 2025-26 membership fees |
Dear Members and former members
Thank you for being a member of Organic Industries of Australia Ltd! If your membership has lapsed, please consider rejoining—it’s a critical time for our industry.
There are four important topics for your attention in this email.
- Government is listening to our advice on Fire Ants
- We have launched a public register of organic properties – please register your property!
- We continue to pursue our ONE Organic Standard strategy
- Membership fees for 2025-26 are now due
Members will receive a separate email about this year’s Annual General Meeting.
We know many operators are doing it tough, so we continue to provide Supporter Memberships which are free for small and medium certified operators who are in financial hardship. Both new and continuing members can take advantage of this offer for 2025-26.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Hislop Speers
Chair, Organic Operators Australia
Fire ants and public property register
Our submission (link) has now been reviewed and accepted. This has resulted in the recent announcement by the National Fire Ant Eradication Program (NFAEP) to stop treatments on organic properties (link). Governments now realise that they are exposed to potential lawsuits over inappropriate use of treatments (read more).
We are serious about Governments engaging with organic operators before mandatory treatment programs. This is not limited to Queensland. There are provisions for mandatory treatment of land in all states of Australia, and knowing the location of certified organic properties will assist government to deploy these programs with a minimum of harm.
This has highlighted the need for a national register of certified properties to all standards, and we are calling all members to log on to our website and register your property. This information will be made available to government to inform any government actions including biosecurity, and help identify organic properties within any regional zones where consultation and or special actions may be required.
Properties certified to any organic standard including the National Organic & Biodynamic Standard, AS6000, private standards (ACOSS, NCOS), and standards of foreign nations, are invited to join the national register of organic operators.
fireants
One Organic Standard
Australian organic regulation has failed organic operators!
Genuine organic operators are losing to pretenders and are really hurting. To survive, our industry MUST stamp out unfair practices from within our industry and from outside.
The system of private industry standards is the root-cause of the industry’s woes. The proliferation of private standards in Australia causes confusion for consumers, leads to certifying bodies competing for clients by weakening their standard, and increases compliance costs for all businesses involved in the production and sale of organic products.
It is a matter of survival that we do this!
There are three simple steps:
- adopt One Organic Standard (AS6000) that can be recognised by Australian courts and internationally
- implement integrity and conduct measures: for certifiers, auditors, operators, traders
- eliminate non-genuine organic practices from our industry and promote organic farming principles
We invite your feedback on One Organic Standard (link) to feedback@organicoperators.au.
We are negotiating an arrangement with Standards Australia on a substantial member discount for a copy of the AS6000 standard. Members will be advised soon about arrangements.
OneStandard