The OECD Agricultural Codes and Schemes facilitate international trade by setting standards and harmonising certification procedures for seeds, forests, tractors, fruits, and vegetables, ensuring product integrity, and simplifying import and export processes. They are part of the international regulatory framework in the relevant sectors and are the basis of many national and regional certification schemes.
OECD standards for agriculture
The OECD Codes and Schemes aim to facilitate and streamline international trade by simplifying procedures, enhancing transparency, reducing non-tariff barriers to trade, promoting harmonisation of standards, and enhancing environmental protection. They help to strengthen market confidence by assuring quality control, providing for inspections, and improving product traceability.
Key messages
The OECD Codes and Schemes play a pivotal role in increasing trust and market transparency, reducing technical barriers to trade (TBTs), and facilitating product traceability. By harmonising certification for seeds, forests, tractors, fruits, and vegetables, they ensure product quality and integrity by enhancing market openness and access, OECD Codes and Schemes enable countries to trade with assurance in the quality of agricultural goods, thereby strengthening market confidence globally.
Established in 1958, the OECD Codes and Schemes emphasise inclusivity, welcoming OECD and non-OECD members as equal partners in global trade. Through continuous dialogue with governments, industry and trade stakeholders, they adapt to market needs and technological advances. This inclusive approach ensures that international agricultural trade standards are reliable, efficient, and beneficial for all stakeholders, promoting global co-operation and accessibility.
Context
OECD Seed Schemes
The OECD Seed Schemes provide an international framework for the certification of agricultural seeds in international trade, ensuring co-operation and trust amongst stakeholders. The Seed Schemes provide important benefits to participating countries, including:
by facilitating international trade and entry into important agricultural export markets, as well as providing access to new varieties of seeds. The Schemes also provide a framework to develop seed production with other countries and private sector companies.
by building trust via an inclusive and participatory standard setting process, and facilitating regular exchanges of information with other national certification agencies.
through the creation of an accessible varietal certification system based on field inspections and control plot testing to guarantee the identity and purity of seed lots. Several countries and regional markets have adopted the OECD standards into their legislation.
by providing an international regulatory framework to govern the formal seed sector, and
by supporting constructive collaboration between the public and private sectors
OECD Tractor Codes
The OECD Standard Codes are a set of rules and procedures for the official testing of agricultural and forestry tractors. The Tractor Codes facilitate trade by updating international rules used to certify tractors and their protective structures are appropriate to ensure safety. Implementation of the Tractor Codes ensures that protective structures and performance criteria are comparable across countries, thus increasing transparency, simplifying international trade procedures, and opening markets
OECD Fruit and Vegetables Scheme
The OECD Fruit and Vegetables Schemes provide a complete and internationally harmonised quality inspection system for 28 participating countries. The mutual recognition of inspections is strengthened through the implementation of peer reviews on national quality inspection systems, the organisation of meetings for the heads of national inspection services, and workshops for inspectors. Frequent meetings allow for a robust dialogue among stakeholders in elaborating and reviewing the interpretation of international standards (established by UNECE and CODEX), as well as defining inspection procedures.
OECD Forest, Seed and Plant Scheme
The OECD Forest Seed and Plant Scheme seeks to encourage the production and use of forest tree seeds, parts of plants or plants that have been collected, processed, raised, labelled and distributed in a manner that ensures their trueness to name. The forest reproductive materials (FRM) certified by the OECD are produced and officially controlled according to harmonised procedures.
Certified FRM is intended for use in a variety of forestry and agroforestry functions, including timber and other goods (e.g. fruit, gum, resin, cork) production, soil protection, biodiversity, climate change mitigation and environmental restoration. Governments collaborate in the Scheme to develop certification procedures that ensure the correct identification of FRMs and minimise uncertainty in achieving successful afforestation and reforestation.
To date, 30 participating countries implement the Scheme, including countries that are developing their certification and trade of forest seeds and plants for agroforestry and reforestation purposes.
