Macedonia2025 took the leading role in advocacy for Equivalency of EU/US certificates for organic production of Macedonian products. The main point for the entire organic production ecosystem in North Macedonia was initiated by Macedonian producers of organic products, who are exporters for both the EU and US market. Therefore, in the past several months, Macedonia2025 has been working on developing arguments and building a case for Petition for Equivalence and recognition of EU certificates for USDA Organic certificates for Macedonian products. The main goal of the Petition is to reduce the unnecessary certification costs for Macedonian organic producers, thus increasing their competitiveness and boosting exports to the EU and US market. 

We are thrilled that we managed to gather the most relevant institutions and actors in this area around the Petition. These include the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy in North Macedonia, University ‘Ss. Cyril and Methodius’ Skopje, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food; companies with organic food production: Alkaloid, Seed of Life, and Chamber of Organic Producers with over 150 members. This in itself shows the importance of the issue and the potential positive effect on the sector. 

By the end of 2020, the Petition for Equivalence and recognition of EU certificates for USDA Organic certificates for Macedonian products was officially submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy and by Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Directorate for economic and public diplomacy) will be conveyed through official diplomatic correspondence as Petition to USDA. We are staying in the following period fully committed to this issue.