Officials explained that they had decided to implement organic certification for pet food because managing pet food is difficult due to the absence of domestic certification standards, despite soaring imports of pet food and an expanding pet industry. (Image courtesy of Pixabay)
Seoul, June 9 (Korea Bizwire) – As the South Korean pet industry continues to grow in popularity, the government has moved to introduce organic certification for dog and cat food. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced on Wednesday that it had revised legislation related to the promotion of environment-friendly agriculture and fisheries and the management of and support for organic foods, including the certification of organic food for pets (limited to cats and dogs).
According to the MAFRA, consumer demand for high-quality foreign-made pet food is drastically increasing due to an increasing number of single person households, a low birth rate and aging population. Officials explained that they had decided to implement organic certification for pet food because managing pet food is difficult due to the absence of domestic certification standards, despite soaring imports of pet food and an expanding pet industry.
The organic certification standard for pet food is based on eating habits of cats and dogs, and benchmarks the organic certification standard for American pet food. In order to receive the certification, companies are prohibited from using genetically modified organisms and raw material originated from them. In addition, they must observe general conditions on organic fodder for livestock and use organically produced raw material, food additives and processing aids permitted to make their organically processed food products
Meanwhile, the government will delay marking domestically manufactured or imported products as organic until December 31, 2018 considering the sale of current inventory and the certification period for businesses that intend to make or import organic pet food after receiving certification from a foreign country.
The MAFRA expects that it will be able to provide safer organic fodder by introducing the organic certification, and officials said they are looking forward to developing fodder using domestic eco-friendly agricultural and livestock products and boosting eco-friendly relevant industries.
By Sylvia Jeong(sylvia@koreabizwire.com)
