South Africa, 11 August 2015 - The Trade Law Centre NPC (tralac) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) hosted the second national stakeholder workshop for the Green Economy and Trade Opportunities Project (GE-TOP) in South Africa, which is supported by the European Commission. The workshop featured around 35 key stakeholders, including government representatives (three national ministries and government agencies), certification bodies, organic farmers, agro-processing industry and academia.
As a key deliverable of the project, the GE-TOP country study assesses challenges and opportunities of sustainability standards and certification as a means to access international markets in the agricultural sector. Furthermore it evaluates the contribution of organic production as a driver for economic growth, meaningful employment creation, and environmentally friendly production practices. Based on the assessment, the study will yield industry and policy recommendations for harnessing the identified trade opportunities in the organic sector.
The national workshop served to present the draft analysis, initial findings and recommendations of the national GE-TOP study, stimulate open stakeholder discussion on selected aspects of organic agriculture in South Africa, and obtain expert feedback and inputs from stakeholders to inform the finalization of the study. It also provided a forum for stakeholders to exchange experiences, ideas and challenges related to current and emerging issues associated with trade opportunities from a shift to sustainable agriculture.
The workshop was designed to facilitate stakeholder engagement. Each workshop theme was introduced by a presentation and a panel discussion and evolved into an open floor discussion where attendees were able to ask questions and provide comments related to the theme.
With regards to next steps under the GE-TOP South Africa, the stakeholder feedback from the workshop and the ongoing peer review process will be integrated into the national project study. The final project study will be published towards the end of 2015.
