A "full immersion" study week about organic agriculture, services' quality and food security was organized for the staff of the Mediterranean Institute of Certification of the Mediterranean Countries (IMC). An occasion to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first IMC operational office in Cairo at the beginning of 2000, that during these years, has been followed by the opening of IMC offices in Tunis, Beirut, Ankara and soon, a new one in Agadir, Morocco.

From the 11th to the 16th of January  the Institute's Mediterranean countries experts met in Senigallia (Italy), where the project for the certification and guarantee of the Mediterranean Countries' quality agricultural produce is born.

The certifications given by IMC include those for quality products from organic farming, the Protected Designation of Origin, the Protected Geographical Indications, and the Designation Origin for quality wines. All these certifications can valorise the Mediterranean productions in local and international markets.

Moreover, the IMC certification system, recognized and accredited internationally, guarantees a high standard of homogeneity of the certification procedures used in the various Countries even with the effort of the high qualified personnel according to the highest international and European standards.

On occasion of the meeting, during the organic dinner offered by the Institute at Ostebigio restaurant in Senigallia, based on the recipes of the best Mediterranean tradition and certified according to "Conosci il tuo pasto", IMC chairman Remo Ciucciomei traced the steps of IMC internationalisation, by describing it as "a project that focuses exclusively on the Mediterranean area, embracing values such as agriculture and Mediterranean food traditions and that is based on quality, guarantee, partnership among Mediterranean enterprises as concrete opportunity of development and protection of the 'Mediterranean brand' in a scenario of global competition."

Moreover, the IMC certification body in Turkey recently received a double accreditation to give organic certifications, both according to the EC regulation and according to the Turkish law Nr 5262 of 12/01/04.

IMC is the first European institute of certification, among those authorised in Turkey, to get the double accreditation, both for the conformity certifications according to the European regulation in Turkey for organic agriculture as well as for the conformity certifications under the Turkish law concerning organic agriculture.