Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 of 5 September 2008 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products with regard to organic production, labelling and control

In addition to the definitions laid down in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007, the following definitions shall apply for the purposes of this Regulation:

1. ‘non-organic’: means not coming from or not related to a production in accordance to Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and this Regulation;

2. ‘veterinary medicinal products’: means products as defined in Article 1(2) of Directive 2001/82/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽¹⁾ concerning the Community code relating to veterinary medicinal products;

3. ‘importer’: means the natural or legal person within the community who presents a consignment for release for free circulation into the Community, either in person, or through a representative;

4. ‘first consignee’ means the natural or legal person to whom the imported consignment is delivered and who will receive it for further preparation and/or marketing;

5. ‘holding’ means all the production units operated under a single management for the purpose of producing agricultural products;

6. ‘production unit’ means all assets to be used for a production sector such as production premises, land parcels, pasturages, open air areas, livestock buildings, fish ponds, containment systems for seaweed or aquaculture animals, shore or seabed concessions, the premises for the storage of crops, crop products, seaweed products, animal products, raw materials and any other input relevant for this specific production sector;

7. ‘hydroponic production’ means the method of growing plants with their roots in a mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel or mineral wool to which a nutrient solution is added;

8. ‘veterinary treatment’ means all courses of a curative or preventive treatment against one occurrence of a specific disease;

9. ‘in-conversion feedingstuffs’ means feedingstuffs produced during the conversion period to organic production, with the exclusion of those harvested in the 12 months following the beginning of the conversion as referred to in Article 17(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007;

10. ‘closed recirculation aquaculture facility’ means a facility where aquaculture takes place within an enclosed environment on land or on a vessel involving the recirculation of water, and depending on permanent external energy input to stabilize the environment for the aquaculture animals;

11. ‘energy from renewable sources’ means renewable non-fossil energy sources: wind, solar, geothermal, wave, tidal, hydropower, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas and biogases;

12. ‘hatchery’ means a place of breeding, hatching and rearing through the early life stages of aquaculture animals, finfish and shellfish in particular;

13. ‘nursery’ means a place where an intermediate farming system, between the hatchery and grow-out stages is applied. The nursery stage is completed within the first third of the production cycle with the exception of species undergoing a smoltification process;

14. ‘pollution’ in the framework of aquaculture and seaweed production means the direct or indirect introduction into the aquatic environment of substances or energy as defined in Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽²⁾ and in Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽³⁾, in the waters where they respectively apply;

15. ‘polyculture’ in the framework of aquaculture and seaweed production, means the rearing of two or more species usually from different trophic levels in the same culture unit;

16. ‘production cycle’ in the framework of aquaculture and seaweed production, means the lifespan of an aquaculture animal or seaweed from the earliest life stage to harvesting;

17. ‘locally grown species’ in the framework of aquaculture and seaweed production, means those which are neither alien nor locally absent species under Council Regulation (EC) No 708/2007⁽⁴⁾. Those species listed in Annex IV of Regulation (EC) No 708/2007 may be considered as locally grown species;

18. ‘stocking density’ in the framework of aquaculture, means the live weight of animals per cubic metre of water at any time during the grow-out phase and in the case of flatfish and shrimp the weight per square metre of surface;

19. ‘control file’ means all the information and documents transmitted, for the purposes of the control system, to the competent authorities of the Member State or to control authorities and control bodies by an operator subject to the control system as referred to in Article 28 of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007, including all the relevant information and documents relating to that operator or the activities of that operator held by competent authorities, control authorities and control bodies, with the exception of information or documents that have no bearing on the operation of the control system;

20. ‘preserving’ means any action, different from farming and harvesting, that is carried out on products, but which does not qualify as processing as defined in point (u), including all actions referred to in point (n) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁵⁾ and excluding packaging or labelling of the product;

21. ‘processing’ means any action referred to in point (m) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, including the use of substances referred to in Article 19(2)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. Packaging or labelling operations shall not be considered as processing.