The Ministries of Agriculture of the Americas established that the functions of the ICOA are:

to monitor the international environment that impacts organic agriculture in the region, send out alert signals to the Member States of the ICOA and advocate the taking of positions and the building of common regional strategies by the public and private sectors on topics that are important for and relevant to organic agriculture; 

to encourage the organization of electronic discussion fora and studies on relevant topics that impact the functioning of the offices of the Competent Authorities and the overall development of organic agriculture;

to promote virtual and face-to-face training fora on topics of relevance for enhancing the performance of the offices of the Competent Authorities and for the overall development of organic agriculture and, in so doing, give preference to existing capabilities within the hemisphere;

to advise and work with the respective Member States of the ICOA in preparing standards to govern organic agriculture and setting in place and consolidating the offices of the Competent Authorities;

to promote horizontal cooperation among the Member States of the ICOA to facilitate an exchange of information and sharing of experiences to bring development levels with regard to organic agriculture more in line with one another;

to provide advice to and work with the authorities of the agricultural sector in Member States of the ICOA, and with other authorities related to the sector, when so requested, in the area of decision-making on topics related to organic agriculture;

to gather, compile and share information of interest to the Member States of the ICOA and maintain an up-to-date database on organic agriculture with official information from the offices of the Competent Authorities and other pertinent information of interest in terms of supporting decision-making processes in which stakeholders in organic agriculture are involved;

to prepare an annual report on the status of organic agriculture in the Americas based on information which the Competent Authorities of the ICOA shall provide at the request of their Technical Secretariat;

to report on relevant events that affect the development of organic agriculture and that might be of interest to the Member States of the ICOA;

to coordinate activities and determine positions with international multilateral and other cooperation organizations that support activities in support of organic agriculture, especially in international fora;

to serve as the main advisory body of the Member States of the ICOA, IICA and other entities that request it, on related topics;

to consider other matters related to inter-American |cooperation in the field of organic agriculture entrusted to it by the Executive Committee of IICA;

to submit to the Executive Committee of IICA – through the Director General of IICA –an annual report on its activities, which may include recommendations and draft resolutions for its consideration;

to establish liaison and cooperative ties with similar entities in the Americas so as to achieve mutual objectives;

to mobilize resources for the execution of its activities, in accordance with Article 24 of these Bylaws.