1. Annual General Meeting

The Conseil des appellations agroalimentaires du Québec (CARTV) will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Friday April 28th, 2006 at 1:30 pm. This meeting is open to all registered members of the Organic Producers Accreditation Board

Those attending the Annual General Meeting are asked to go to the following address:

Hotel Mortagne
Salle Montarville
1228, rue Nobel Boucherville (Québec) J4B 5H1
Telephone:(450) 655-9966

The hotel is just off Autoroute 20 (exits 92 or 93).

The association members will be reporting on the activities of 2005 and outlining strategic planning for CARTV programs and activities for the year 2006.

To obtain a copy of the corporation’s rules and regulations before the Annual General Meeting is held, please contact the CARTV by phone: (514) 864-8999; by fax: (514) 873-2580 or by email: info@caaq.org.

MEETING AGENDA

1. Opening of the Annual General Meeting,
   1. Quorum Confirmation
   2. Nomination of Meeting Facilitator and Secretary
   3. Reading and Adoption of Agenda
2. Adoption of the 2005 Annual General Meeting minutes
3. Board of Directors President’s Report (reading and adoption)
4. Executive Director’s Report;
   1. Presentation of the Annual Report by the Executive Director
   2. Question Period
   3. 2005 Report Adoption
5. Financial Report Presentation and Adoption
6. Nomination of Auditor for 2006
7. 2006 Budget Presentation
8. 2006 Action Plan Presentation
9. Accreditation Board Elections (Organic Production)
   1. Processers’ Representative
   2. Certifiers’ Representative
10. Other Questions
11. Closing of the Annual General Meeting

For more information about the CARTV, its organization and operation, please visit our website at:

2. Correction – Public Consultation Announcement

The Conseil des appellations agroalimentaire du Québec is presently holding a public consultation concerning the addition of a new requirement for article 9.6 of the Québec Organic Reference Standards. This article concerns the advertising, display material and commercial documents. An error slipped in during the online posting of the consultation document. The Announcement should read as follows:

9.6.2 Such phrases as “Organic Company” and “Organically Certified Enterprise” or other similar expressions are not permitted in the advertising, display materials and commercial documents except if:

1. All products originating from this enterprise and appearing on the attestation of certification are organic or contain more than 70% organic ingredients as defined in paragraph 9.3.3, or
2. The company’s advertising that displays this phrase shall include the name or image of only those products that contain more than 70% organic ingredients.
   

3. SIPAB: Québec Organic Agri-Food Statistics

Data collected in the SIPAB (Information System for Organic Agri-Food Products) since December 2005 has enabled us to easily create tables that pull together information about the Québec Organic Sector. Here are two important ones:

There are 1,138 licensed enterprises registered by certification bodies as of March 30 2006.

These enterprises have reported carrying out the following types of operations on their operation sites:

The CARTV can easily do a real time pull together of precise statistics using 20 variables gathered by our information system.

Consumers and professional buyers have been also taken into account from the initial planning of the system. Within a few weeks the SIPAB will add a new module capable of researching Quebec certified products. A simple operation will enable the link between producers and their clientele. This tool will be directly accessible on the CARTV’s homepage. There will be a public relation campaign to announce it when it goes online.

4. Recognition of New External Certification Bodies

These four organizations have requested and have been granted accreditation as Authorized Certification Bodies.

• Agrocert de Marmande (France) for products from all sources other than Québec, accredited March 9, 2006
• Inspection Institute of Organic Products SA also known under the name of Bio Hellas, Athens (Greece) for products from all sources other than Québec, accredited March 9, 2006.
• Onecert, Lincoln, NB (USA) for products from all sources other than Québec, accredited March 9, 2006.
• Biokontroll Hungaria Kht, Budapest (Hungary) for products from all sources other than Québec, accredited March 30, 2006.
  

5. Nomination of Nicole Boudreau as Market Supervision Officer

Ms. Nicole Boudrerau was hired on March 20 to replace Ms. Julie Belzile as Supervision Program Officer. Ms. Boudreau is in charge of the CARTV’s Supervision Program and relations with Québec organic products dealerss. She has a degree in biology from the Université de Sherbrooke and a degree in communications from McGill University. She has over 15 years experience in program management and administrative organization.

CARTV Board of Directors

CARTV Personnel