organics

Samoa is an island nation blessed with rich volcanic soil, abundant sunshine, tropical climate and generous rainfall. The verdant year-round growth is far from the pollution, pesticides, and contaminants of other nations. It is an ideal organic safe haven.

In 2001, five WIBDI farms gained organic certification from NASAA, the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia. Rigorous inspections are carried out annually by Australian inspectors.

To date, WIBDI have helped 204farms become organically certified under NASAA and 150 more farms are currently waiting to be certified this coming March. Many more farmers have lodged their interest in becoming organically certified with WIBDI, a process which can take up to 3 years.

Organic certification opens up niche, international markets for our clients, allowing greater potential for income-generation. WIBDI also help our farmers access these markets by acting as a middle-man, arranging for a large number of small producers to contribute in order to supply the amount of produce required by international clients. Examples of this include our work investigating access to the NZ market for Samoan organic bananas.

We are also involved in the Regional Organic Task Force, and through this body have assisted in the development of a set of regional organic standards, adapted to the particular conditions in the Pacific region, that have been approved by IFOAM. This is known as the Pacific Organic Standard, and is available for download in PDF form from the IFOAM website.

Read more about our longest running organic project, our Virgin Coconut Oil project, or our more recent work on organic bananas.

Certified organic fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices, and other produce are available for purchase through WIBDI at our monthly organic markets, or by purchasing an organic basket.