Geographical Indication (GI) options for Ethiopian Coffee and Ghanaian Cocoa

Innovation & Intellectual Property
Organic certification
Organic certification schemes arose from consumer-driven organic movements
across Europe and the US that opposed the perceived unsustainable character of
agricultural biotechnology and also had reservations about the safety of genetically
modified (GM) foods (Mansfield, 2004). Organic production schemes are
those in which farmers’ management of agriculture is based on natural methods
of enhancing soil fertility – a conscious intermingling between human-based
farming systems and natural systems. It can be argued that most informal farming
in Africa is already de facto organic (Osei-Asare, 2007).
Unlike environmental certification, organic certification standards are usually
institutionalised through national legislation. Under these systems, certification
is generally overseen by governmental bodies. Producers cannot use the
term “organic” without proper certification. Internationally, the International
Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements has prompted multilateral efforts
to harmonise standards for organic certification. In Ethiopia, the government
enacted the Organic Agriculture System Proclamation of 2006 with two main
objectives, namely, (1) to protect consumers of Ethiopian organic products against
fraudulent acts such as use of misleading labels, and (2) to facilitate international
recognition and acceptance of the Ethiopian organic products system in the international
market. The MOA has the power to issue implementing directives and
establish an “organic agricultural product council” to inspect and certify products
bearing the label “organic” (Organic Agriculture System Proclamation of 2006).
Despite our finding that there is a perceived absence of the strong MOA supervision
envisaged by the Proclamation, there were, in mid-2012, an estimated 79
Ethiopian coffee cooperatives and 28 private coffee growers certified “organic” by
foreign certifiers, often supported by capacity-building NGOs.
In Ghana, the Ghana Standards Board issues Codes of Practice for Organic
Farming and oversees producers’ compliance for certification, but there is no comprehensive
legislation on organic certification akin to what is present in Ethiopia.
A recent study revealed that farmers had little awareness of the Standards Board’s
Codes of Practice (Osei-Asare, 2007). Similar to the situation in Ethiopia, a number of
NGOs in Ghana support capacity building for organic certification for farmer groups
in collaboration with foreign certifiers. For example, some of the projects run by the
Agro Eco-Louis Bolk Institute (see footnote 3) specialise in organic certification.
Assessing certification schemes
Most of the leaders of cooperative unions and farmers’ associations interviewed
for this research lauded the impact of existing certification schemes in terms
of the financial and material support they offered in the form of premiums for
88