Brazil-based Beraca has been steadily carving a name for itself in the international market as a leading supplier of Amazon-sourced natural ingredients, many of which are organically grown in the region's rainforests.
However, reassuring its customers that its ingredients fully comply with the higher quality standards set for organic ingredients is not always a straight forward.
Many companies report that when trying to gain organic certification they are often bogged down by a minefield of regulations and a dazzling array of businesses offering different types of certification programmers.
In this instance Beraca has chosen France-based ECOSERT, which has built up a reputation over a period of 15 years that now sees its certification recognised in over 70 countries.
Its certification programme aims to assure customers that the product is exempt of chemical contamination and that the process for obtaining the product respects the natural environment, not posing any threat to the survival of the species.
ECOCERT says that its programme was developed to establish the technical criteria for ecological organic certification for cosmetics. It also aims to fill a gap that is left in the identification and certification of high standard organic ingredients.
Recently Dr. Bronner, a US-based provider of natural- and organic-based personal care products, said that it described ECOCERT as one of the most widely recognised and comprehensive organic certification programmes currently available worldwide.
Currently Beraca's range of EOCERT products include Açai Oil; Andiroba Oil; Buriti Oil; Pracaxi Oil; Cupuaçu Butter; Murumuru butter and Ucuuba butter, products that are used in a variety of natural and organic based products, including soaps, moisturising creams and hair care products.
Certification is becoming increasing important to organics manufacturers as a means of clearly identifying and validating its products in a market that is sometimes tainted by spurious claims.
Analysts beleive that certification can help feed growth in a market that is tipped to be one of the fastest expanding for 2006.
While the cosmetics and toiletries sectors is expected to grow by only around 1 percent a year through 2009, TNS Media Intelligence/CRM predicts that the annual growth rate for natural organic skin care, hair care and color cosmetics markets in the US alone to be around 9 per cent between 2003 and 2008.
This leads the analysts to beleive that the value of the US market will increase from $3.9bn (€3.14bn) to $5.8bn, with similar increases in store for the less developed European market.