Greece’s organic certification fraud was first revealed last year. Problems were systemic. Certification bodies and 3rd party auditors were implicated, issuing site certification without the required inspection and falsifying audit and site visit records. Two of Greece’s six certification bodies were suspended.
The fraud motivation was to claim undeserved farming subsidies.
Greece’s agriculture minister has now cancelled two key organic subsidy programmes for livestock and beekeeping, and suspended all applications, pending a full overhaul of the system. Organic certification schemes are still in operation in Greece using the remaining four Certification Bodies.
See media report here.
