Brazil-Germany Agribusiness Meeting

		Organics and Sustainability will be two of the topics discussed during Brazil-Germany Agribusiness Meeting, that will be held in Berlin, from July 8 to 11.

On February 15, 2006, in Nuremberg, during a meeting in preparation for the Brazil-Germany Agribusiness Meeting, among other topics, the exportation of Brazilian organic products was discussed. The matter progressed, and the publication of this resolution, signed by Minister Furlan, will be informed in Berlin.

The Brazil-Germany Economic Meeting will be held at the BDI in Berlin, from July 8 to 11, and Planeta Orgânico will take part in the Agribusiness Work Group for this Meeting.

In the "Sustainability" Workshop, which is part of the official program of the event and will take place on July 10, Planeta Orgânico will present the events BioFach América Latina, ExpoSustentat and the 1st Sustainability Leadership Forum, the latter to be held during the ExpoSustentat 2006, in São Paulo.

According to Mario Mugnaini, Executive Secretary of the Foreign Trade Chamber (“CAMEX”), the resolution, approved during the latest meeting of the GECEX, deals with exports of organic products through guidelines that will be published shortly by the Foreign Trade Secretariat (“SECEX”).

"In fact, this issue was the object of discussions in the Brazil-Germany Agribusiness Commission and we committed to this action, which will allow the Government and exporters to establish automatic statistics via the SISCOMEX. This tool will also provide for greater control of organic product exports. The SECEX has already studied the procedures, and will inform registered exporters operating in the fields of agribusiness and environmental products (cosmetics, etc) of the relevant procedures by circular, so that they can prepare for the new system. The solution thus adopted is the simplest and can be quickly put into practice. Together with the members of the working group in Germany, we can study a future joint action together with OMA for a solution that will be internationally accepted by the member-countries of the WTO," said Mário.

Mario Mugnaini

Alexandre Harkaly (IBD's chairman) and Renato Hauptmann (AECO's chairman) gave their opinion concerning to this resolution.

"The IBD has always stressed the importance of this measure. The codification of products through the NCM is extremely important and represents a real advance for the organic market.

Every self-respecting sector and country needs to have official statistics on their products and their export movements. Well, if neither our sector and nor the government is sufficiently organized for that yet, we will at least have statistics on exports of organic products. Through the SISCOMEX data and reports we will have access to details such as destinations, types of products, volumes, and prices in effect. For strategic planning and greater transparency, these data will be fundamental in the future.

Brazil is late in taking these measures, seeing that Argentina and Chile already have them. However, better late than never!

Another important measure should be a reduction in export tariffs on organic products; this measure has already been proposed by Ministers Furlan and Rodrigues and by the former German Minister of Agriculture, Ms. Kunast, at Biofach in Nuremberg in the past. So far little has been done in this respect", added Alexandre Harkaly.

"This new step recognizes the importance of and directly benefits the organic segment
The support given by the Federal Government to the sector must now be definitively materialized by issuing the decree with regulations relating to the Organic Products Law adopted in December 2003.

The initial focus on the European market, through the event to be held in Germany – undoubtedly the most sophisticated and developed organic market in the European Community – and your presence publicizing the BioFach América Latina and Exposustentat 2006 event, will be another reinforcement to the intensive and growing commercial relationship with Germany itself and with Europe as a whole.

The fact that *certified organic products* now appear separately in the SISCOMEX statistics will increase their visibility and generate new business prospects in the foreign market, in which there are very many opportunities." said Renato Hauptmann, AECO's chairman.

CAMEX - RESOLUTION NO. 13, OF JUNE 8, 2006

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE FOREIGN TRADE CHAMBER, making use of the powers conferred on him by article 5, paragraph 3 of Decree no. 4732, of June 10, 2003, based on article 1 thereof, with a view to supporting the development of foreign trade in organic products, and in order to ensure the identification and statistical measuring of export and import registers of such products,

DECIDES, subject to confirmation by the Council, as follows:

Art. 1 Foreign trade operations with certified products originating from the organic system of agricultural and industrial production, covered by Law no. 10,831 of December 23, 2003, are subject to the administrative procedures to be adopted in the Integrated Foreign Trade System (“SISCOMEX”).

Sole Paragraph. The Foreign Trade Secretariat (“SECEX”) of the Ministry for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade may issue supplementary rules for the application of the provisions of the caption of this article.

Art. 2 The SECEX shall periodically make available the statistics relating to foreign trade in the above-mentioned products.

Art. 3 This resolution shall come into force on the date of its publication.

LUIZ FERNANDO FURLAN