THE Myanmar Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association (MFVP) held a workshop on the Study of a Regional Framework for Organic Agriculture on April 9 in Yangon.

“We need an action plan to develop organic farming. Getting exact guidelines for organic production requires cooperation between government and the private sector,” U Win Aung, the president of the association, told participants.

His call for cooperation was echoed by Dr Myint Thein, the president of the Myanmar Academy of Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Fisheries.

About 40 people attended the workshop, including agriculturalists from Yezin Agricultural University, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, representatives from local and international NGOs, fruit and vegetable exporters and growers, and officials from the MFVP.

The association formed the Organic Fruit and Vegetable Committee late last year to promote organic farming in Myanmar.

“Organic produce has good marketing potential. Our association will try to promote organic farming technologies and we are planning to certify fruits and vegetables produced organically,” U Win Aung said.

“Wholly organic fruits and vegetables certified by the association will come on the market after three years,” said U Hnin Oo, the secretary of the Organic Fruit and Vegetable Committee.

Farmers who want to grow organic produce must register with the association and accept its monitoring for labelling purposes.

“We’ll start issuing guidelines and practices required to achieve international standards in the next two or three months,” U Hnin Oo said, adding that the association will send inspectors to farms that claim they are already producing organic products.

“If we find they’ve already set up organic practices, we will allow them to label their produce as organic,” he said.

But he also stressed that the association would not accept genetically modified fruits and vegetables as the organic products.

“We are hoping supermarkets will soon have separate shelves for organic produce,” U Hnin Oo said.

Participants acknowledged at the workshop that developing organic farming in Myanmar would need some time because of the higher production costs and lower crop yields it entailed.

Since chemical fertilisers and certain pesticides cannot be used, pests and plant diseases often reduce organic crop yields.