1. For hop cones, certification shall take place not later than 31 March of the year following the year of harvest. Member States may set an earlier date.
2. Every consignment of unprepared hops presented for certification shall be accompanied by a written harvest declaration signed by the producer giving the following data:
(a)
the producer’s name and address;
(b)
the place of production;
(c)
the variety;
(d)
the year of harvest;
(e)
the parcel reference in the land register or an official equivalent thereof;
(f)
the number of packages in the consignment.
3. The harvest declaration provided for in paragraph 2 shall accompany the consignment of hops until the certificate is issued.
Verification of the minimum quality criteria of unprepared hops
1. Compliance with the minimum marketing requirement relating to the moisture content of the hops laid down in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/602 shall be checked by representatives of the competent certification authority applying one of the methods described in section B of Annex IV to this Regulation and must give results within two standard deviations. In the event of a dispute, compliance shall be checked by the method described in section B, point 1, of Annex IV to this Regulation.
2. Compliance with minimum marketing requirements other than the moisture content shall be checked in accordance with normal commercial practice.
However, in the event of a dispute concerning the extraneous matter content, the method described in section C of Annex IV shall be used.
3. For the purpose of the control methods referred to paragraphs 1 and 2, samples shall be taken and treated in accordance with the method described in section A of Annex IV. Samples shall be taken, in each consignment, from at least one package in ten and, in any case, from at least two packages in a consignment.
