Certified Organic

In an effort to serve you better, Draco Natural Products has earned organic certification as a processor of organic raw materials. Our organic certification adheres to both NOP andEU EC 834/2007 standards and our ingredient products can be certified to either set of standards. This exciting new development is a significant step for Draco, as it allows us to use organically grown and certified herbal raw materials in producing extracts, and to bring the final extract to the marketplace as a certified organic ingredient.

This is good news for manufacturers of dietary supplements, functional foods, beverages, and cosmeceuticals that would like to include high quality Full Spectrum Standardized Herbal Extracts™ in their organic product offerings. Manufacturers that understand the superior quality of a Draco extract can now benefit from an unbroken chain of organic certification from the farm to the store shelf.

Draco’s certification specifically includes certification to NOP (National Organic Program) standards, which is the standard accepted in the US by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture),  as well as to European Union EC 834/2007 standards. Certification is done by Ecocert. So we can provide organic ingredients internationally, certifying to the standards that are in acceptance in most countries. Appropriate documentation for organic raw herbs that we process into organically certified herbal extract ingredients accompanies your shipment. 

Over a Decade of Organics

Draco Natural Products has operated a 100% certified organic facility since 2004, processing a wide range of organic botanical ingredients. Our organic certification adheres to USDA’s NOP and European EEC 834/2007 standards, and many of our ingredient products can be certified to both standards. This is good news for manufacturers of dietary supplements, functional foods, beverages, and cosmeceuticals that would like to include high quality Full Spectrum Standardized herbal extracts in their organic product offerings. Manufacturers that understand the superior quality of a Draco extract can now benefit from an unbroken chain of organic certification from the farm to the store shelf.

The Organic Marketplace

Currently, 81% of families in the United States purchase and use organically certified products, and that number is increasing every year, as production, and consumer awareness continue to rise. After many years of double digit growth, sales of organic products are still growing at an annual rate of around 14%. In 2012 organic food production jumped a whopping 240%, topping $81.3 billion in sales! While organic fruits and vegetables are the leading category of organic products in sales volume, an area that also continues to enjoy double digit growth is Organic Personal Care and cosmetics products. Draco manufactures a full line of bioactive botanical ingredients specifically for the personal care market, many of which are certified organic.

While Draco is headquartered in the United States, our herbal extract processing facility is in Shanghai, China. Deeply ingrained in Chinese tradition and culture, herbal practice, usage and business in China is enormous, dwarfing its equivalent in the US. Organically certified herbs and foods can be readily sourced in China, but the vast majority of the crops are not certified to USDA NOP standards. Draco is working to correct and change that.

In China, Draco is a pioneer in the botanical extract ingredient business. We were the first botanical extract producer in China to achieve organic certification for our 125,000 square foot manufacturing facility. We were among the first in the industry to achieve ISO9000 quality standards as well. We were also among the first to achieve both Kosher and HACCP certification. We are also GMP certified, and HALAL certified for your additional assurance of safety, quality and purity.

We at Draco sincerely want American consumers to be able to experience and benefit from the vast richness of bounty of the herbs that grow in China, and the 5,000 years of traditional wisdom that has brought the herbal industry to its current position of prominence in China. In every way possible, we strive to produce ingredients that achieve that aim, while working to dispel the myth that all herbal ingredients from processors in China are of unknown quality. We stand behind our quality, purity, and safety; and organic certification is another step in our evolution toward bringing you the perfect balance of nature, science and tradition.

While we strive to support our customers with our products, we also strive to support the indigenous farmer in China. We are instrumental in providing an opportunity for more farms to convert to organically certified operations. As it is, many herbs that are grown in China are grown without the use of chemicals or pesticides, for purely economic reasons. Chemical soil additives are simply too expensive. Many farmers use natural fertilizers and few if any pesticides, making them good initial candidates for organic certification. We at Draco offer support and encouragement to these farmers to convert to certified organic agriculture.

Sustainability is a key aspect of Draco’s organic certification program. We work directly with farmers and farmer coops to teach and promote sustainable agriculture and ethical wildcrafting practices. We have a 10,000 acre tract of organically certified land in China’s interior that is used for ethical and sustainable wildcrafting. We also actively work with many outside agencies, such as WWF, to help protect the last remaining Giant Panda habitat in central China, and provide fair trade opportunities for local communities in the Panda region that practice sustainable and/or certified organic plant cultivation and wildcrafting.

Whole Fruits and Vegetables

We are especially excited about the huge potential for organically certified extracts of fruits and vegetables, which we produce from whole fruits and vegetables. To make a Draco full spectrum extract, we start with the entire whole plant part. It is extracted in pure, clean water using Draco’s proprietary iterative process. We process a wide variety of certified organic raw materials, including herbs, medicinal mushrooms, spices, fruits and vegetables into safe, effective, full spectrum extracts.