Items Required to be Stated in the Contract between Organic Certification 
Bodies and Agricultural Operators  
 
Legislative history  
1. Full text of 4 items was promulgated by the Council of Agriculture on June 5, 2019 per 
Order Nung -Liang -Tzu-Tze 10810 69322 A. 
 
1 Definitions of terms used in this Contract:  
1.1 Production place: premises  involved in the production, processing, packaging, or 
distribution of organic agricultural products or in -conversion agricultural products.  
1.2 Surveillance: an audit performed by the certification body to verify that the certified 
operator keep comply ing with the certification standards within the valid 
certification period.  
1.3 Renewal audit: an audit  conducted  by a certification body before the valid 
certification period ends to determine whether a certified operator may maintain its 
certifi ed status . 
1.4 Extensional audit : an audit  conducted  by a certification body to determine whether 
a certified operator may extend its certification scope within the valid certification 
period.  
1.5 Certification standards, categories, and items of agricultural products: the 
certification standards, categories, and items of agricultural products established by 
the Central Competent Authority in accordance with paragraph  3 of Article 12 of 
Organic Agriculture Promotion Act  (hereinafter referred to as the Act).  
1.6 Operator : a natura l person; a farm, ranch, aquafarm, organization, agricultural 
production and marketing group incorporated or registered pursuant to law; a legal 
entity  obtaining a company license or business registration certificate ; an authority 
(institution), school, or  legal entity.  
1.7 Group certification: the group certification stipulated in Regulations for Approving 
and Supervising Organic Accreditation Bodies . 
2 Certification  appli cation  stage  
2.1  
2.1.1 The documents below  shall be submitted by the operator apply ing for the 
certification:  
2.1.1.1  Documents to prove that the Applicant is a  qualifi ed operator . 
2.1.1.2  Information about  the geographical location of the production place.  
2.1.1.3  Production plan or process description subject to the certification 
standards. The operators subcontracting  others to produce, process, 
package, distribute, or sell products shall submit the subcontracting production plan or process description.  
2.1.1.4  Records and documents related to the maintenance of its organic 
operation system.  
2.1.1.5  Other documents required by the Central Competent Authority or 
certification body.  
2.1.2 Records and documents related to the maintenance of the organic operation 
system as stipulated in 2.1.1.4  include:  
2.1.2.1  Operation records.  
2.1.2.2  Ingredient and material  procurement and inventory recor ds. 
2.1.2.3  Product production and sale records.  
2.1.2.4  Management r ecords of production land, facility, and environment . 
2.1.2.5  Certification history . 
2.1.2.6  Customer complaint records.  
2.1.2.7  An o perator applying to multiple certification bodies for certification 
shall also submit the self-management mechanism and relevant records.  
2.1.3 Operators applying for group certification shall also submit the following 
documents to the certification body for application:  
2.1.3.1  Supporting documents regarding the contractual or other legal relations 
between and among all members and the management  center.  
2.1.3.2  Quality management system documents, relevant operating procedures, 
and execution records of the management center.  
2.1.3.3  Records of a t least one round of self-audit on the management center.  
2.1.3.4  Records of at least one internal inspection conducted by the management 
center on all members.  
2.2 Certification procedure and operation period of each procedural stage  carried out by 
certification body  shall include:  
2.2.1 Certification procedures shall include documents review, on -site audit , product 
sampling for testing, and certification decision, and the applicant shall be 
notified of the results in writing. However, if according to risk assessment , or 
no products are available for testing due to the factor o f force majeure, the 
certification body may test other part of the plant thereof.  If considered 
necessary, the certification body  may sample a p roper quantity of materials  or 
substances used by the operator s for testing purposes . 
2.2.2 The certification body shall determine the operation period of each procedural 
stage, and the total duration of the operation s shall not exceed six months. 
However, this period shall not include the time period to make corrections or 
improvements notified to the applicant.  
2.2.3 The way to handle the issues caused by exceeding the time limit of the aforesaid  operation period due to reason s attributable to  the certification body . 
2.2.4 The certification body is exempted from paying for the product s, materials or 
substances sampled  for testing , and shall conduct sampling for testing 
according to the accreditation standards approved by the Central Competent 
Authority pursuant to subparagraph 2 of paragraph  4 of Article 11 of the Act.  
2.3 The r easons  for reject ing application for certification shall include  the following 
items : 
2.3.1 The production, processing, packaging, or distribution process of the 
agricultural products applying certification do es not comply with the 
certification standards, and such non-compliance s are critical.  
2.3.2 Where the percentage of organic and in -conversion ingredients of the 
respective agricultural products  applying for certification accounts for less than 
95 %.   
2.3.3 Where the on -site audit cannot be conducted  within six months after the 
document review due to reasons attributable to the applicant.  
2.3.4 Where the applicant, without good cause shown, fails to make corrections or 
improvements within the given time limit notifi ed by the certification body ; 
2.3.5 Where the te st result  indicat es the product contains  prohibited substances.  
2.3.6 False documents or information is provided that can result in serious 
consequences . 
2.3.7 Where the certification procedure cannot be completed within a one -year 
period after the date of accepting t he application for reasons attributable to the 
applicant.  
2.3.8 Within one year after the certified status is  terminated by the certification body  
due to the violation of the Act . 
3 Post-certification  stage :  
3.1  
3.1.1 Circumstances under which an operator shall take the initiative to apply to the 
certification body for an amendment to the certificate of organic certification or 
in-conversion certification include the following:  
3.1.1.1  Change of the name or address of the operator, or the name of its 
statutory person responsible.  
3.1.1.2  The certification scope is reduced in terms of the certified site or certified 
product item.  
3.1.1.3  Reduction of group certification members.  
3.1.2 After the relevant materials have been submitted  and the application in the 
previous  paragraph has been reviewed and app roved, the certification body 
shall issue a replacement certificate with the same period of validity as the original certificate.  
3.2  
3.2.1 Circumstances under which operators shall take the initiative to apply to the 
certification body for review include changes i n the production process of 
organic agricultural products and in -conversion agricultural products , or 
changes in the operating system maintaining organic integrity as well as the 
subcontracting production process . 
3.2.2 If the certification body reviews the change and determines that it is likely to 
affect the results of the original certification,  the certification shall be 
conducted  on the change by the certification body.   
3.3  
3.3.1 Circumstances under which an operator shall take the initiative to apply to the 
certification body for an extensional audit include the following:  
3.3.1.1  An extension of certification  site. 
3.3.1.2  An extension of agricultural product items to be certified.  
3.3.1.3  An extension of group certification members.  
3.3.2 When an operator submit s relevant materials to apply for and ha s passed  the 
extensional audit stipulated in the previous paragraph, the certification body 
shall issue a replacement certificate with the same period of validity as the 
original certificate.  
3.4 Regarding t he use of cert ificate for organic agricultural products and in -conversion 
agricultural products , it shall include being non -transferable to others; however, 
when a duplicate copy needs to be provided, it shall include  all contents of the 
certificate.  
3.5  
3.5.1 For first -time applicant, t he validity period of certification certificate for 
organic agricultural products and in -conversion agricultural products shall be 
no more than three years  from application date . Three months prior to the 
expiration of validity period, the oper ator may fill in an application form to 
apply to the certification body for renewal audit ; overdue renewal applications 
shall not be accepted.  
3.5.2 After the renewal application according to the previous paragraph has been 
reviewed and approved, the certificati on body will issue a replacement 
certificate.  The validity period shall be counted from the day after the 
expiration of the original valid period and be no more than three years.  
3.6  
3.6.1 The frequency of the surveillance on operators by the certification body shall 
be no less than once a year and may be increased if necessary.  3.6.2 The surveillance conducted by the certification body according to  the previous 
paragraph may be conducted without notice or by serving notice to the operator 
within twenty -four hours befo re surveillance , and the operator shall not refuse 
without good cause.  
3.7 The periods that operators must retain  relevant operational records and documents 
regarding the maintenance of product ’s organic integrity are as follows:  
3.7.1 One year for fresh agricultural products.  
3.7.2 If the product’s label indicates an expiration date, one year after the expiration 
date.  
3.7.3 Five years for other products.  
3.8 Reasons for the termination of certification  by the certification body  shall include 
the following:  
3.8.1 The operator fails to keep conform ing to the relevant provisions of the 
certification standards or certification contract  in a serious manner , or fails to 
make correction within the time limit required by the certification body . 
3.8.2 The operator refuses, evades, or impedes  the surveillance by the certification 
body.  
3.8.3 The operator provides false documents or information  that has serious 
consequences . 
3.8.4 The contents of an advertisement published by the operator are inconsistent 
with the certified contents in a serious manner . 
4 Others  
4.1 Operators shall cooperate with relevant matters when the certification body is 
conducting the initial audit , surveillance, renewal audit , extensional audit  or 
product sampling; the statutory person responsible or relevant personnel of the 
place  being audited shall accompany the audit  and shall sign or stamp  on the record 
made by the certification body after work is completed.  
4.2 The certification procedures in 2.2 shall apply  mutatis mutandis  to the procedures 
of reviewing and certification stated in 3.2.2 , the extensional audit  stated in 3.3.1 , 
the renewal audit  stated in 3.5.1  and the surveillance stated in 3.6.1 . The 
certification body shall  thereby  implement necessary procedures after assessing the 
certification risk  of an individual case.  
4.3 The labeling, usage, suspension of usage and relevant management of organic 
marks.  
4.4 Calculation of compensation for damage s to the operator certified by the 
certification body due to the termination of its  accreditation qualification in whole 
or in part by the accreditation body.  
4.5 Calculation of compensation for the leak of operator’s  confidential technical production information or trade secrets that the certification body learns  through 
certification activities.