Mexican Organics: The Challenges of Input Review Under LPO

By Matt Sircely

Fifteen years after the inception of Mexico’s Organic Products Law (LPO), the organic program in Mexico is now entering a new phase of regulatory transition. On June 9, 2021, the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) formally extended until January 1, 2022, the deadline for all imports with organic claims to demonstrate compliance with LPO requirements. 

The announcement means that, for now, the status quo of recognizing foreign certifications as equivalent to LPO will continue through the end of this year. If and when the deadline expires, all products will need to be certified under the LPO in order to be allowed for organic sale in Mexico. Similarly, all inputs will need to be allowed inputs under the LPO program.

Finished organic products continually flow both ways across the U.S.-Mexico border, including input materials used in organic cultivation. Crops ranging from organic vegetables, fruits and coffee to aloe vera and cacao are all grown across the vast and diverse landscape of Mexico. 

Julia Elizabeth Pérez Lyons is legal representative in Mexico for the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA). Also a former member of the National Council for Organic Production (CNPO), which advises SADER, Pérez explains, “Manufacturers will seek LPO approval, since foreign producers will have to comply with the LPO regulations if they seek to export to Mexico [after January 1], until we have equivalency agreements.”

SADER’s announcement cited the pandemic as a primary reason for delaying implementation and specifically noted the importance of maintaining cross-border commercial flow with countries in the process of seeking organic equivalency with Mexico, a process which began years ago. “Equivalency agreements with the United States and Canada are expected, and imports will have a positive effect on the organic sector,” says Homero Blas Bustamante. Formerly president of IFOAM Latin America, Blas is director of the certifier Mayabio, president of the Mexican Society of Organic Production (SOMEXPRO), and the general manager at Agro Orgánico. Blas predicts a decline in the number of input products approved according to LPO criteria “as soon as agreements are reached with Canada and the USDA.” 

Many organic operators within Mexico are already certified to specific international standards, with products bound for export to the EU, Canada, Japan or the U.S. There are currently several avenues for manufacturers of organic products with foreign certification to demonstrate LPO compliance, including the process of “recertification.”

As authorities implementing the LPO standards continue to develop procedural details, material review organizations (MROs) are assessing their potential roles under the standard. Currently, authorizations to perform reviews of organic materials rest with individual accredited certifying agencies and the Mexican federal body known as the Group of Experts. The LPO directs this group to make determinations on the allowance of input materials, and to maintain a list of allowed materials, methods and permitted ingredients. 

As Blas explains, “The Group of Experts is only going to review substances and not commercial supplies; this is what the CNPO [National Council for Organic Production] has agreed so far.” Manufacturers who seek approval will eventually benefit by being “published for free on the official page of the Secretary of Agriculture,” Blas says, adding that approval according to the LPO “will be a requirement for use in organic production.” At the same time, some types of inputs are still not on the approved list, “because the Secretariat has not yet clearly established the procedure [for the review of certain materials] and the issue is under discussion at the National Council for Organic Production.”

As certifiers approve products for use under LPO, they typically compile internal lists of approved inputs. Apart from OMRI’s nascent OMRI Mexico Products List©, there is not yet a public resource that lists approved products—this according to Mabell Rivas, Product Certification Technical Operations Manager for Quality Assurance International (QAI), an NSF International company. Rivas joined the OMRI Mexico Review Panel earlier this year. She believes it is common for certifiers in Mexico to trust OMRI’s baseline determinations for products reviewed to the NOP (National Organic Program) standards, while additionally verifying all of the criteria needed to ensure an input product also adheres to LPO.

Under LPO, explains Rivas, “anything which is manufactured or produced with engineered nanotechnology is not allowed. This is a distinct requirement of the LPO. The NOP has also come out with a policy on that, but it’s not included in the regulation. For the LPO, it’s part of the review process: we need to verify that these materials have not been manufactured with engineered nanotechnology.”

Along with the nanotechnology provisions, she notes another area of supplemental review: “Certain materials, mined minerals for example, will have specific criteria related to environmental impact.” In addition to achieving the requirements of organic approval, pesticide manufacturers must register products with the federal regulatory body, COFEPRIS (Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks). “Sometimes this material approval from COFEPRIS can take not months, but years,” says Rivas. “So it’s tough. And sometimes it’s really difficult for manufacturers or for anybody to demonstrate that their material is compliant.”

The Mexican regulations closely mirror those of the EU, Rivas says, and the National List of allowed material inputs is nearly identical. Whereas the NOP maintains lists of both allowed and prohibited materials, the LPO mandates only an allowed list. “The LPO requires that the approval of materials or inputs which are derived from or formulated with combinations of materials on the National List must be reviewed and approved by the Mexican Group of Experts of the Organic Council. These materials should be added to the ‘List of Formulated [Materials]’ and this list should be published online. However, as of today, this list has not been established, resulting in the need for OMRI services in Mexico,” says Rivas. OMRI maintains constant communication with SENASICA's Group of Experts on technical matters surrounding organic inputs. 

From her vantage point as a certifier, Rivas explains how the Group of Experts is designed to function. “It’s more like a committee, kind of like the Technical Review Committee of OMRI.” (OMRI’s Technical Committee is a Board committee of experts that make recommendations to the board around OMRI’s standards and review criteria.) The formal process for adding generic materials or otherwise changing the National List is defined by SENASICA Procedure 04-045.

Since accredited certifiers generally trust OMRI’s NOP determinations, Rivas firmly believes that OMRI plays an important role in the organic industry in Mexico, by listing more products approved to the LPO. “Having an OMRI list of approved substances makes our lives a lot easier. Any time that we have to review and approve a material ourselves, we have to follow a process very similar to what OMRI does, in addition to verifying compliance of the whole system — which, in turn, makes the certification process lengthier, more complex and much more expensive.”

Based in Oaxaca, Pérez cites high review costs and “additional costs such as product analysis,” as common barriers facing operators she encounters in her work with OCIA. She explains: “Often times the cost of overhaul is high for product manufacturers when they have small production volumes. If you have applied for review through multiple agencies, the cost goes up even more.” Sometimes, she says, operators are unaware of the need for material review, or even the existence of a list of permitted inputs. “From my very personal point of view, the best listing that could exist for the LPO is through OMRI, since it is recognized worldwide for being expert, reliable and serious in the evaluation of materials under various certification programs.”

In response to a comment about the OMRI Listed® seal appearing on billboards in places like rural Michoacán, Rivas laughs. “That means that OMRI has become popular in Mexico, because if they felt that putting the logo on there is a good marketing strategy, then that means OMRI’s name is recognized [as providing] more assurance and trust.”

Blas says organic product manufacturers in Mexico follow the same marketing strategies used by conventional companies: “they promote online, participate in expos, visit companies that use inputs, and sponsor events for agricultural producers.” He identifies a general trend where the force driving the most innovation related to the organic sector is coming from “the conventional industry, and production [designed] to reduce the use of agrochemicals. 

“For example, I have noticed from the evolution of the Expo Irapuato in Mexico that there were agrochemical companies and promotion of their products. During the last visit I made in 2019, I was surprised by the absence of advertisements for chemicals, and [the presence of] more ‘sustainable’ products. The considerable tendency to reduce waste from exportable products has had a broad influence,” he says, but adding that “it is not exactly organic production. Another reason is the policy of the current Mexican government to reduce the use of glyphosate until it is eliminated in 2024, but there is also a policy not to use agrochemicals.” That policy is promoted by several secretariats that make up the Intersectoral Group of Health, Nutrition, Environment and Competitiveness.

Listing with an organization like OMRI can help input manufacturers better reach producers, Pérez says. “Not all agencies accept as valid the reviews carried out by other certification agencies, so input manufacturers are required to submit confidential information to multiple agencies.” Furthermore, some individual certifiers do not issue “letters of verification of compliance or acknowledgments to input manufacturers. Being on OMRI’s list of allowed inputs only requires dealing with one evaluation entity. It is an easier way for producers to identify approved materials for use in organic agriculture and processing, and for manufacturers to expand their customer base.”