Producing free range and organic pork

This guide introduces the steps and requirements your business will need to consider to become certified as organic.

Organic pork is produced without the use of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, fertilisers, antibiotics or genetically modified organisms. When you produce free range and organic pork, your pigs are raised in a free-range system, meaning that they live outdoors on pastures or cropland that is regularly rotated.

If your pork products have been certified organic, they have been prepared, processed, packaged and transported in systems that guarantee they are not contaminated by synthetic chemicals, fumigated or irradiated.

Your organic pork products will usually fetch higher prices at market than conventional pork and your certified organic pork products have the right to be marketed using premium branding.

If you are thinking of becoming certified as an organic pork producer, you will need to plan carefully for a long-term commitment. Organic piggeries are managed very differently to conventional equivalents. There are extra inputs of labour and materials and the costs of maintenance can be higher.

Organic systems are strictly regulated and inspected, and the process of becoming a certified organic pork producer can take many years to complete.