You have organic produce, a buyer abroad, and a certificate on the wall. The question that decides whether the consignment ships is which certificate it is.
India runs two separate organic systems. One of them is a regulatory requirement for export; the other is not. This episode sets out which is which, straight from the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), 8th Edition 2024 — the document the rules actually live in.
The rule that governs every organic export
- NPOP"Any organic product exported from the Country needs to comply with the regulatory requirements under the NPOP"
- Since 2001NPOP is notified under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act for exports
- APEDAIs the secretariat implementing NPOP
- TracenetMandatory for every certification body and operator under NPOP
What NPOP Actually Covers
NPOP is not only a standard. Its scope, set out in Chapter 2, runs to five things:
- Policies for the development and certification of organic products, as notified by the Department of Commerce.
- National Standards for organic products, processing, handling and labelling.
- Accreditation of the certification programmes operated by Certification Bodies.
- Certification of organic products.
- The India Organic logo and the regulations governing its use.
One of its stated objectives matters more than the rest if you are exporting: to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries' organic standards as per mutual recognition agreement. NPOP is the bridge between an Indian farm and a foreign regulator.
Where PGS-India Fits — and Where It Does Not
PGS-India is a different programme entirely. It is administered by the National Centre for Organic and Natural Farming under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and it certifies through peer appraisal: farmers in a Local Group inspect each other, and a Regional Council endorses the decision. It is a genuine certification system with its own standards, sanctions and scope certificates.
What it is not is a route to an export consignment. Export compliance is defined by NPOP, and NPOP certification is third-party: an accredited Certification Body inspects and certifies, and the certificates are issued on Tracenet. A PGS scope certificate is not an NPOP certificate, so it does not by itself satisfy the export requirement.
| PGS-India | NPOP | |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | NCOF, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare | Department of Commerce; APEDA as secretariat |
| How it verifies | Peer appraisal by fellow farmers, endorsed by a Regional Council | Third-party inspection by an accredited Certification Body |
| System of record | PGS-India portal | Tracenet |
| Legal basis for export | Not the export requirement | Notified under the FTDR Act for exports |
| Typical user | Small farmer groups selling in India | Producers, processors and traders shipping abroad |
The two are not rivals, and a farmer group certified under PGS-India has not wasted its effort. The records, the field discipline and the group structure all transfer. What has to be added for export is NPOP certification by an accredited body — which is what the rest of this series walks through.
What an Export Consignment Actually Needs
Strip the process to its essentials and four things have to exist before organic produce leaves the country as organic:
- An operator registered and certified under NPOP. An operator, in NPOP's own definition, is a producer, processor, trader or Grower Group registered under NPOP and certified by a Certification Body.
- A scope certificate, issued annually by your Certification Body on Tracenet.
- A transaction certificate for the consignment. TCs are mandatory for every transaction of organic products — domestic as well as export — and are issued on Tracenet with a unique verifiable code.
- Labelling that matches what was certified, under the National Standards for Organic Production.
Everything else — the buyer's paperwork, customs, the importing country's own certificate — sits on top of those four.
Calling a product organic without this chain is not a paperwork lapse. It is a claim about a regulated category, made in a market where the importing country can and does check it. A rejected consignment is expensive; a lost certification is worse.
What This Series Covers
The episodes ahead follow the order the work actually happens in: who the players are and which certification route fits you; choosing a Certification Body and surviving the first inspection; conversion periods; grower groups and the Internal Control System; processing units; the certificates and Tracenet; labelling; then registrations, destination-market rules, shipping documents, and what it takes to stay certified year after year.
If your group is certified under PGS-India and you want that side of the picture too, start with What Is PGS-India. KrushiFlow validates these fields and submits farmer records to the portal in bulk.