BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio — The USDA announced a new partnership between the United States and the European Union meaning that, for the first time, organic foods certified in the United States can be sold in Europe – providing new market opportunities for certified organic growers.

“This means that organic growers do not have to go through the extra paperwork, extra cost to be able to ship to Europe,” said Betty Kananen, president and CEO of Global Organic Alliance (GOA), one of about 54 agencies in the United States accredited by USDA to perform organic certification services.

“Heretofore, there had been quite a few hoops that they had to jump through,” she said. “Also, only certain agencies were permitted to offer that program for certification. This means that there is no cost and it opens it up to all certified organic American farmers, rather than those that are certified by the ISO Guide 65 (the International Standards Guideline, a general guideline for certification).

“How (this partnership) came to be is rather interesting because until it was completed, none of us were aware that it was even being discussed by the two governments,” Kananen said.

Most agricultural products have been grown and certified organic in the United States except maybe bananas, Kananen said. GOA certifies rice grown in Texas and also about 75 farmers in Ohio. These are not just big commercial operations that will benefit from this partnership, Kananen said; sometimes smaller-scale famers will grow a specific crop for a product such as baby food.

“It might be only three or four acres of squash or sweet potatoes or tomatoes, whatever might be needed,” Kananen said. “The number of acres really doesn’t come into it, it is what they grow on those acres or that plot.”

Some farmers may have just greenhouses where they grow certified organic transplants. If an organic farmer grows sweet potatoes, or anything from a transplant, the transplant has to be certified organic.

“Shipping could be prohibitive, but there are containers of certified product that go out every day,” Kananen said. “I’ve been in this business since 1988, and Germany received millions of millions of bushels of different organic crops, canola, spelt; they made cereal out of them and then shipped them back to us.”

Processors will also benefit with products such as organic jams, pizzas, pot pies, ketchup and more.

“It is going to be a good thing for the farmer and it is going to help agencies too, because that means that we don’t have to spend extra time reviewing two different standards and the paperwork and training that goes with it,” Kananen said. “It’s going to be something good all the way around, for agencies, but mostly for the American farmer.”