UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement provision for organic equivalence confirmed

Defra have now formally confirmed that the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement provision for organic equivalence will continue beyond 31 December 2023.

The UK and EU have engaged in a review of the current UK and EU organic standards and both sides have now confirmed that they continue to accept each other’s organic standards as equivalent thus enabling trade in organic products between GB and the EU to continue beyond 2023. This review took place because the EU organic regulation changed in 2022 and so the terms of the TCA required a re-assessment to ensure each party’s organic standards remained equivalent.  

The terms of the TCA remain unchanged, details of which can be found in the links below.  To be exported to the EU from GB organic product must be grown/produced or processed here or imported into GB and then processed. The same restrictions apply for imports from EU to GB, i.e must be grown/produced or processed in the EU, or imported into the EU and processed.

Details of the EU's recognition of UK organic exports can be found here Agreements on trade in organic products (europa.eu). Details on the UK’s recognition of the EU’s organic products can be found here (tab 14).’Full details can be found in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, Annex 14: Organic Products.

For further information on organic trade with the EU and EEA, please refer to our Exporting and Importing webpages