ECOCERT GROUP: THE WORLD LEADER of CERTIFICATION iN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE welcomes the HEADS of its FRENCH AND iNTERNATIONAL SUBSIDIARIES
From September 29th to October 2nd, the Ecocert Group, a global leader of certification in organic agriculture, receives the Heads of its French and international subsidiaries. The seminar takes place at Ecocert’s headquarters[1] in L’Isle-Jourdain (South of France), with the objective of exchanging views, better understanding the markets, and preparing the future of the Group. It gathers 27 General Managers and Office Managers, representative of the Ecocert Group in 22 countries and 4 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia, and America)[2].
Focusing on Ecocert’s 2015 Group Management Meeting
This meeting, which is happening every two years, aims at reporting the results of the Group’s actions. It also consists in sharing and promoting good practices, analysing and also preparingwork orientations for the next few years. An occasion for everyone to get to know the Group’s development. The latter currently employs nearly 900 collaborators around the world, recorded a 43 million euro turnover in 2014, and totalized50,000 clients in a hundred countries. For Philippe Thomazo, CEO of the Ecocert Group: “This seminar is strategic. It gathers the whole General Managers of the Group, as well as our Heads of regions, business sectors and support functions. Overall, more than 50 managerswill meet. This privileged moment is nothing but essential to consolidate the team spirit. It will permit us to discuss about the issues faced since the last seminar, but also to share our successes, and, finally, to imagine the future of our Group”.
The Ecocert Group Worlwide
An international certification body of organic agriculture, Ecocert is recognised in the world for its know-how. Thanks to its international network, the Group operates in more than 110 countries, with an offer structured onconscientiousness and local actions that is to guarantee the controls and the traceability of organicproducts. As an independent organism, the Ecocert Group mobilizes its experts in the framework of certification processes for sustainable development. In 2009, the Group opened four subsidiaries in Europe and North Africa (Turkey, Serbia, Morocco, and Tunisia) and one in Burkina Faso in 2011. It is also very dynamic in Switzerland and in Germany, through its subsidiaries IMOswissAG, that delivers certifications for organic agriculture, organic textiles, forest, fair trade…, and IMO GmbH, one of the main organic certification bodies in Germany. In 2014, Ecocert acquired three companies: IMOgroup AG (Switzerland), IMO-Control SertifikasyionTicaret (Turkey), and the Institute for Marketecology (Chile). A new French subsidiary, Ecocert Expert Consulting, was also launched last year.
First activity of the Group, the certification of organic agriculture represents 75 % of Ecocert’s global turnover in France as well as across the world. The global market of organic products is booming in numerous countries, reaching 55 billion euros in 2013[3].
“Thanks to therigorit appliesin its different areas of expertise, Ecocert has gained the confidence of consumers, in France first, then abroad. Our clients are proud to display our certifications, for they offer a strong guarantee of their products’ ecological value. Besides, through our local approach and our numerous offices across the world, the Group has managed to establish itself in areas of high production and consumption of organic products”,underlines Philippe Thomazo.
Through its Climate and Forest Department, the Group is strongly involved worldwide in protecting the environment. Nowadays, Ecocert is a recognized certification body of voluntary carbon offset projects through VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) and Gold Standard. A Gold Standard project is now being carried out in China and several others will be launched this year, in Peru. Ecocert’s auditors ought to verify that reforestation programmes are well respected and developed with the implication of local communities. Through its actions and its large network of experts, Ecocert keeps on reinforcing its key position in audit and organic product certification, in France and abroad. “The success of Ecocert is the sign of a global awareness, explains William Vidal, Chairman of Ecocert. From now on, the organic sector is apprehended in the light of the challenges it can address: The development of an agriculture that respects both mankind and the environment, thanks to cultivation methods compatible with the regeneration of a biodiversity-friendly ecosystem. Beyond organic agriculture, Ecocert intends to offer its know-how to anyone willing to adopt a “Green Business”attitude. The carbon footprints we calculate for companies that plan to reduce their fossil energies are precisely made in such perspective”. A strong ambition that echoes the debates launched around the energy transition, a few months away from the COP21.
|
[1] The Group’s headquarters are located in an eco-constructed and positive-energy building, that was certified LEED Platinum in 2014.
[2]The managers gathered in the framework of this seminar come from: France, South-East Asia, South Africa, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, Colombia, North America, India, Japan, Madagascar, Morocco, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Germany, Chile, Switzerland.
[3] According to the “Global Organic Food Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020”, the global market of organic food products should register a 16 % annual growth by 2020.