International Symposium on Marketing and Finance of the Organic Supply Chain
24-27 September 2012, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok has been implementing various activities to link small farmers in the Asia and Pacific region with premium markets. One premium market that continues to grow in Asia and the world is the market for organic produce. As a result, the number of producers that is interested in organic production is growing too. But there are a good number of challenges, not only in production but also in finance and marketing of the production.

The “International Symposium on Marketing and Finance of the Organic Supply Chain” will be a forum for exchange of experiences of organic practitioners, marketers and financiers from around the region and a medium to learn what the best practices are, what works and what does not work in terms of marketing and financing organic production.

Topics will include contract farming, certification systems, participatory guarantee systems, farmers’ markets and other forms of direct marketing, export of organic produce, transition schemes, financing organic vis-à-vis non-organic, financing transition, educating the bankers, role of governments.

The Symposium is jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) of Korea, the Asia and Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) and the Agricultural and Food Marketing Association for Asia and the Pacific (AFMA). The Symposium aims to bring out and document the best of the regional experiences into a publication of the proceedings of the symposium.

The symposium will consist of three days of plenary and breakout meetings (24 – 26 September 2012) and one day of field trip (27 September 2012).

Venue of the Symposium
National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF), Seoul, Korea

Call for Papers
Authors are invited to submit papers in all areas of marketing or financing of the organic supply chain, to be considered for presentation at the symposium. An abstract of maximum 400 words should be submitted electronically to AFMA (for papers on marketing) or to APRACA (for papers on finance). The submission should include: title of the paper, authors name(s) and institution(s); telephone, fax and email address.

Full papers should be a maximum of 4,000 words. The abstract must have been received by email not later than 30 April, 2012, at 16.00 hrs Bangkok time (GMT+7).

The review process has the following steps and deadlines:
• 30 April 2012: deadline for submission of abstracts (maximum 400 words) by authors
• 14 May 2012: authors will be informed of the outcome of the review process
• 30 June 2012: deadline for submission of the full paper (maximum 4,000 words).

Limited financial support (lowest economy class airfare, waiver of the registration fee and a maximum lumpsum of US1,000) to present the paper at the symposium will be offered to selected authors. Late papers will not be considered for financial support or for publication in the conference proceedings.

FAO house style: Papers should follow the “FAO House Style” which can be downloaded from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/ac339e/ac339e00.htm. A list of common errors that are in violation of the FAO House Style will be available at www.organicseoul2012.com.

Call for Papers Committee on marketing:
1. Mr. Andrew Monk, Ph.D., Director and Convenor Standards Advisory Group, Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA)
2. Mr. Jo Cadilhon, Ph.D., Agro-economist - Governance and marketing chains, Centre for Studies and Strategic Foresight, French Ministry in charge of Agriculture
3. Ms. Opal Suwunnamek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, KMITL, Thailand

Call for Papers committee on finance:
1. Mr. Won-Sik Noh, Secretary General, APRACA
2. Mr. Sahaschai Yaowapankul, Director, International Cooperation Management Department, Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Thailand
3. Mr. Jung-Sup, Choi, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Food Resource Economics, Yeongnam
University, Korea.

Registration: The registration fee is US$ 200 per participant. Registration for “Early Birds” (before 1 August 2012) will be discounted at US$100. Registration is open from 1 April to 31 August 2012

Enquiries: Registration forms and other information can be found at www.organicseoul2012.org (the website can be accessed from 1 April 2012) or contact:
• AFMA: Ms. Juejan Tangtermthong Ph: +662 697 4350-2; Fax: +662 6974406;
Email: juejan.tangtermthong@afmaasia.org, or
• APRACA: Ms. Thanawan Ampaipanvijit, Ph: +662 697 4360; Fax: +662 2801524;
Email: thanawan@apraca.org.