As part of the further development of the information management system for official controls (IMSOC), DG AGRI implemented a further blocking mechanism in the IMSOC system component TRACES in the area of organic certificates of inspection (COI) on 21 January 2025.

Organic farms in Austria have been entered into TRACES by the organic inspection bodies since 2023. With the current system changeover, all organic companies throughout the EU must have a unique Organic Operator Identifier in TRACES so that a company can be selected in the COI. This unique OOC ID can only be generated or assigned by the BIO inspection body in TRACES.

In order for the first consignees to be able to access their COI in TRACES and confirm the proper acceptance of the consignment in point 31 of the certificate of inspection (COI) after validation by the "Endorsing Authority" (BAVG), it is necessary that the respective personal users are linked to the company entry of the inspection body.

With this technical change in TRACES, the division of tasks and competences between the Issuing Bodies (BIO control bodies) and the Endorsing Authority (BAVG) has been strictly implemented in TRACES. The "old" company entries for BIO importers previously created and validated by the BAVG can therefore no longer be used in TRACES and will be deleted as "duplicated".