Product Acceptance

Procedures for Product Acceptance Service for Imported Organic Processed Products

An organization operating wholesale, distribution or retailing business has to apply for the Product Acceptance Service when it intends to use HKORC organic seal on an imported processed organic products certified by a certification agency that is recognized by HKORC-Cert.

	Main Steps	Important Notes
1	Applicants for product acceptance should complete the application form, submit together with the relevant information and application fees to HKORC-Cert.	The application fee for product acceptance depends on the quantity of products in the application (please refer to Charging Scheme for details). the relevant information includes： copy of valid organic certificate copy of transaction certificate information on product batch transaction contract signed by both parties to the transaction transaction receipt documents of the requirements for the applicant requested by relevant certification body(s), previous non-compliances and requirements of relevant correction recent inspector report(s)
2	HKORC-Cert reviews the information submitted by the applicant	If the submitted information is inadequate, supplementary information should be provided within 30 days upon notification by HKORC-Cert
3	HKORC-Cert conducts on-site audit for the applicant’s operation to verify the product information concerned.
4	Information about the application will be reviewed and judged by the Certification Board (CB).
5	HKORC-Cert will issue a letter to the applicant confirming the batch of product items accepted after the CB judgment. The validity of the product acceptance is one year.	Regarding the product items fail to pass the product acceptance review, the applicant may rebut or file an appeal against the CB’s judgment within 30 days after the issuance of the judgment notification.
6	Within the validity period, applicant can use HKORC organic seal or written description on the product package of the relevant batch to illustrate HKORC-Cert’s acceptance.	The relevant usage of seal and wordings of description must follow the requirement of HKORC-Cert Standard Chapter 6, and obtained approval from HKORC-Cert. During the validity period, the applicant can use HKORC organic seal on another new batch of HKORC-Cert accepted product items only after submission of relevant information, on-site audit and approval from HKORC-Cert. It is not required to re-submit the application fee.
7	During the validity period, HKORC-Cert will put the name and information of organic products accepted by HKORC-Cert into the Directory of Product Acceptance until the certification of that product batch expires. This directory will be uploaded on HKORC-Cert website for the reference of certified units and the public.	In order to maintain the product acceptance status, applicant shall submit the renewal application to HKORC-Cert 3 months prior to the product acceptance expiry every year.

Charging Scheme

Applying for this service requires an administration fee of $1,200 per application. This administration fee includes the product acceptance fee for a maximum of 5 product items and first on-site audit fee. For additional items, the product acceptance fee is calculated according to the quantity of items required for the service and the number of *on-site audits. The charge of the HKORC organic labels is not included in the acceptance service fee. The charging scheme for the acceptance service is shown in the following table:

Administration Fee (HKD)	Product Acceptance Fee (HKD/product item)
$1,200 (Including the product acceptance fee of the first 5 product items and first on-site audit fee)	Administration Fee (HKD) Product Acceptance Fee (HKD/product item Quantity of products require the service (#item)：
	6th – 50th	$200/item
	51st – 100th	$180/item
	101st – 500th	$160/item
	501st – 1,000th	$140/item
	1,001st – 3,000th	$120/item

# item – The same product with different packing materials and/or flavour shall be calculated as different items.
* additional on-site audit – $500/time.