Higher quality criteria
The participating producers from the member states of the European Union must run their entire agricultural operations (vegetableand animal products) on the basis of the EU-Eco Regulation. On top of this, the following additional higher quality requirementsover and beyond the provisions of the EU-Eco Regulation also apply:
- The agricultural crop land must be planted with at least 20% legumes in crop rotation.
- In the summer, major parts of the basic ration of ruminants must consist of green fodder. Feeding ruminants with silage fodder alone is not permitted.
- For pigs and poultry, the following upper limits for livestock per hectare apply:
- Stalls for porkers: 10
- Laying hens: 140
- Broiler chickens: 280
- Pullets: 280
- Fattened ducks: 210
- Fattened turkeys: 140
- Fattened geese: 280
- Breeding sows: 6.5
- Piglets: 74
- No use of fresh, dried, or composted poultry droppings, no purchase of liquid animal excrements (slurry, liquid manure etc.) from external conventional-farming sources.
- Use of composted or fermented household waste only upon presentation of additional organic-quality-assurance criteria.
- No use of products or by-products of animal origin for fertilization, exceptions: hoof meal, hair meal, horn meal.
- Purchase of organic fertilizers from external sources restricted to max. 40 kg N/ha; exceptions: horticulture and permanent crops.
- When copper products are used, the active-ingredient volume must be restricted to max. 3 kg per hectare and year (hop cultivation max. 4 kg per hectare and year).
- In vegetable cropping no use of soilless cultivation methods, exception: sprout production.
- At least 50% of the animal feed must be produced on the own farm or in defined feed/manure exchange programmes (exception: small producers: livestock under 1,000 laying chickens, 30 breeding sows, 60 porker stalls, 10 horses).