Organic farmers' organizations in Australia say they have imposed a blanket ban on the export of organic chicken because of concerns over the type of feed used.
It has been revealed that meat-meal wrongly certified as organic has been used since 2002. But they say chicken certified as organic still meets international standards and has not been contaminated in any way.
The Biological Farmers of Australia say they brought the issue to the Government's attention and have had a number of meetings with officials in Canberra to discuss it.
Chairman of the Organic Standards Committee for the Biological Farmers of Australia, Dr Andrew Monk, says the public should not be worried.
"Certainly I can assure consumers that there's certainly no product out there that we know of bearing a certification mark that is anything other than certified organic and complying with those organic standards," he says.
Dr Monk says the meat-meal did not meet the strict criteria.
"There was nothing ultimately wrong with it ... certainly it came to our attention it wasn't actually fully complaint to organic standards itself," he explains.
"So this is the feed that some of the animals actually eat, so it was, so called conventional feed, uncontaminated, but not fully compliant to what's called certified organic standards."
The certifying body says exports will begin again when producers can prove the feed was not used. The Organic Federation of Australia has called for the Federal Government to regulate a set standard for organic produce.
Organic Federation chairman Andre Leu says the situation will confuse consumers.
"My main concern here is having multiple standards," he comments.
"That we have one standard for exports, and then another one for the domestic market. We should be only having one standard."
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