Athena Bochanis is the owner and founder of Palinkerie, a small, New York-based import company that showcases boutique winemakers from Hungary in the U.S. Earlier this month, she took to Instagram to seek information on upcoming changes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) regulations, after learning that importers such as her would soon need to obtain organic certification. She struggled to find instructions from official regulating bodies, so she posted a story inquiring if anyone else was running into the same roadblocks. The plea was echoed by frantic responses from several kindred wine professionals, all unsure of what would happen when the March 19 deadline hit, or how to prepare for it.
In January 2023, the USDA announced that its National Organic Program (NOP) had approved the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) final rule, a set of directives that were officially implemented this week on March 19. The biggest update to organic regulations since the original Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990, the SOE rule aims to protect the integrity of the organic supply chain and build trust in labeling by improving traceability and increasing enforcement. In other words, every business that handles organic goods now needs to be certified as organic, rather than just producers.
While bolstering consumer confidence in organic products is all well and good, many businesses have been left in the dark regarding what’s required of them. With increased red tape around importing organic wine and little clarity around the new certification laws, small wine
