RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian government said over the weekend that it established regulations for organic products and was creating a producers registry to promote the growing market.

The registry will allow officials to determine how many organic growers are operating in the South American nation and the volume of agricultural products being grown without pesticides, Agriculture Ministry environmental affairs coordinator Rogerio Dias said.

The government has set regulations and will tally output of agricultural commodities, such as fruits, legumes, vegetables, milk, meat and honey, as well as goods like cosmetics and cleaning products, being produced using organic practices.

“Today, we already have some better technologies and public policies, such as the payment of about 30 percent more for organic products. The more we know about the importance of this process, the more things are going to happen,” Dias told the official Agencia Brasil news agency.

The Agriculture Ministry plans to sign an agreement with the Education Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry to create agroecology businesses in the university technical schools, Dias said.

The Agriculture Ministry also plans to negotiate the inclusion of organic foods in public school cafeterias, a measure that will be “the next step” in bolstering the growing market, Dias said.

Last Friday, three regulations were published in the Official Daily that opened the way for certifying products as organic and setting quality standards, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

The regulations cover processing, storage and transportation of organic products, and require the use of “best practices” in handling such goods, the ministry said.

The majority of organic products in Brazil have been marketed in their “natural form” and without regulations, creating a disincentive for investment in the industry, Dias said.