Organic fraudsters face crackdown

New rules are set to protect Kiwi consumers from shonky suppliers peddling pricey products in the first big shakeup of the $600 million organics industry.

The sector has grown 30 per cent over the past couple of years with more consumers happy to cough up a premium for products branded organic, despite there being no regulated definition of what it is nor many consumers even knowing what it means.

But scepticism seems to have been slowly brewing too.

Despite the ‘‘clean green’’ reputation, complaints about organic food have triggered more than 30 investigations by the Commerce Commission over the past decade.

And studies suggest consumer distrust and lack of understanding around the term organic is halting sales.

Brands of tofu, eggs, honey and olive oil claiming to be organic were among the foods complained about.

The term is – arguably – vague but generally refers to products that are made or grown without the use of artificial or synthetic products.

‘‘When you buy something that’s organic or New Zealand made you’re pretty much reliant on the information given by the trader,’’ Commerce Commission head of strategy, intelligence and advocacy Ritchie Hutton said.

‘‘If a competitor can get away with making bogus claims about their free-range or organic product, then you’re at a competitive disadvantage.’’

But this year, it’s set to get harder for companies. A national standard for organic production will be introduced in 2019, Agriculture and Food Safety Minister Damien O’Connor announced last month. It means any product claiming to be organic will have to be proven.

A lot of people distrust the word anyway, Dr Leah Watkins of Otago University said.

‘‘At the moment anyone can claim organic and will,’’ Watkins said.

‘‘There are no limits in advertising in regards to that term.’’

While most Kiwis view organic products as superior to non-organic, few people buy only organic produce, Watkins said.

Besides cost, it seems to be scepticism and confusion around the term that puts them off.

And in a study by one of Watkins’ honour students, most people didn’t understand what organic actually meant.

‘‘They associated it with things like free range, locally grown, they used it interchangeably.’’

In 2017, a buyer complained to the Commerce Commission about a marinated tofu, labelled as organic. The buyer had fallen ill after eating it and believed it to contain flavour enhancers.

‘‘I would hate for other consumers to purchase this product and become as unwell as I have,’’

the complaint said.

Another investigation was triggered by a consumer concerned about salmon supposedly ‘‘fed only what they eat in the wild’’ but were actually fed nonorganic bags of food.

And in 2018, a ‘‘free range’’ egg producer was charged for sourcing caged eggs from a Waikato producer and labelling them free range.

But it’s hard to prove something is or isn’t organic, manager of intelligence advocacy and inquiries Carissa Baker said.

‘‘Some consumers will make a complaint but they either don’t want to provide the evidence or don’t have the evidence so it makes it quite difficult if we don’t have the evidence.

‘‘But it’s still very interesting to us. It is a source of intelligence for us, especially if we’ve had a number of complaints about a business. Consumers are likely to pay a premium for products that claim to be organic or better in some way or consumers may also want to buy things that are New Zealand made and are willing to pay more for that,’’ Baker said.

Calls for a national standard began in about 2000, Organics Aotearoa New Zealand chairman Doug Voss said.

Despite its clean green reputation, New Zealand is one of few countries with a booming organic sector that doesn’t have a national standard. ‘‘Organics, unfortunately, seem to have dropped through the cracks,’’ Voss, an organic kiwifruit grower, said. ‘‘We’re now playing the massive game of catch up.

‘‘The problem is people see the organic claim and they believe it is and they buy.’’

And it should help to weed out the fraudsters.

‘‘It will make life very difficult for them.’’