Chengda Organic Certification Reportedly Invalidated, Certified Households Continue Using the Label Unaware

"NCKU Organic Certification" is shockingly reported to have become invalid as of March 1 this year (2015), yet certified operations and the general public were kept completely in the dark. The non-profit National Accreditation Foundation (TAF) recently quietly announced on its official website that NCKU's accreditation had expired and its certification eligibility terminated; Su Mao-hsiang, chief secretary of the Agriculture and Food Agency, confirmed that while NCKU is currently appealing, TAF has indeed terminated NCKU's eligibility. As for why it was terminated? TAF, NCKU and the Agriculture and Food Agency all declined to disclose details.

After NCKU's accreditation eligibility was terminated, can products bearing the NCKU organic certification mark still be called "organic products"? Su Mao-hsiang, chief secretary of the Council of Agriculture, said it depends on "the point in time when the mark was issued." If processing and packaging were completed before March 1 this year, the products may continue to circulate on the market, but products made after March 2 can no longer use the mark, nor can they be counted as organic products.

Yet in the two months since NCKU's organic certification became invalid, not only were certified operations not informed, but even the "Organic Agriculture Global Information Network" commissioned by the Agriculture and Food Agency still lists "NCKU Organic Certification," with the validity period even noted as extending to "March 1, 107th year of the Republic of China" (2018). How many farmers, unaware of the situation, continue to use the invalid NCKU organic mark? When consumers later discover that the organic products they bought have had their organic eligibility revoked, who should they hold responsible?

TAF (National Accreditation Foundation) announced on its official website on March 2, 2015 that NCKU's organic certification had expired and it is no longer an accredited member