Fibres that have not undergone any post-harvest processing.
") from India #### Impact of the delisting of 5 Indian Certification Bodies by the European Commission for Category A (Unprocessed plant products) on the [GOTS](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/gots "The worldwide leading voluntary sustainability standard for the post-harvest textile value chain for certified organic fibres, covering environmental criteria, human rights, social criteria and business conduct.
") supply chain As you are aware, as a processing [standard](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/standard "standard glossary text
"), GOTS certification begins with the relevant first processing stage of textile fibres. Before accepting raw materials into the GOTS certified supply chian, first [processors](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/processor "An entity in the processing chain (post-harvest handling up to finishing) of GOTS Goods.
") have to ensure that the raw materials they purchase are certified to an [organic](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/organic "'Organic' is a regulated term used to distinguish systems of managed production and products derived therefrom that adhere to principles of health, ecology, fairness and care, and which are certified compliant to an organic standard's regulations by an Approved Certification Body.
GOTS defines organic textiles as being made with fibres from organic agriculture systems that are certified to one of the IFOAM Family of Standards, and that are processed in socially and ecologically responsible ways, in alignment with organic principles.
standard glossary text
") that is approved in the [IFOAM Family of Standards](https://www.ifoam.bio/sites/default/files/2021-09/FamilyFrame_2020_Sept%202021.pdf) for the relevant scope of the production (crop or animal production). Included in this family of standards is the India Organic Regulation and the EU Organic Regulation. On 5th October 2021, the European Commission proposed, through a draft amendment of regulation EC 1235/2008, to delist five certification bodies (CBs) from India, namely Ecocert India, Control Union India, Indocert, Lacon India, and OneCert International from the Annex III of the regulation which essentially meant that they would not be able to certify organic farm production (such as organic cotton) to the EU Organic Regulation. The five CB’s mentioned above will be officially removed from the list of control bodies recognised by the EU Commission once the regulation is shortly published and is expected to be effective from 1st January 2022. This is applicable for Category A (unprocessed plant products) exports to the European Union. Following some queries by GOTS certified entities on the subject, GOTS would like to address possible concerns by all stakeholders to avoid any ambiguity. Please note that four of these five CBs possess NPOP\[1\] accreditation from APEDA \[2\] (Ecocert India, Control Union India, Indocert, Lacon India). For more details of NPOP accredited CBs refer to APEDA’s [website](https://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/organic/NPOP_certification_bodies.pdf). Being recognised in the IFOAM Family of Standards, GOTS recognises the NPOP standard as one of the primary raw fibre certifications for [input](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/input "General term for all Substances and Preparations directly applied as textile auxiliary agents, inks, dyes or pigments.
") into the GOTS certified supply chain. **It follows, therefore, that the delisting of the four CBs has no impact on the GOTS certified entities so long as they continue to purchase authentic certified organic raw materials from a supplier certified by a recognised NPOP accredited [certification body](https://gots.vorschau.website/resources/glossary/certification-body "A Certification Body, having been duly accredited by an Accreditation Body and by way of signing a contract with Global Standard gGmbH has been permitted to implement the Global Organic Textile Standard over a designated geographical area and for specific scopes of the Standard.
") in India**. \* \* \* \* \* For more information, contact: Prachi Gupta (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) Note: APEDA has suspended OneCert International for a period of 1 year effective from 20.10.2021, wherein while this suspension is in force, no raw fibre TC can be issued by OneCert International. \[1\] National Programme for Organic Production \[2\] Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority [ Share this page ](#fs-toggle=share)