The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) published an update notifying importers and brokers that the import and admissibility requirements for all the end uses of organic seed products from chapters 7, 9, 10 and 12 were incorporated into the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS), in January 2023, in accordance with Part 13 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.
Anyone who imports organic products must present a valid organic certificate, when requested at any time, including at the time of import. The organic product certificate must include the name of the product being imported, be issued by the Certification Body that certified the product as organic and, must accompany each shipment of organic products.
CFIA has taken a phased-in approach to the updating of the import requirements in AIRS, which involves creating new commodity identifiers (OGD extension codes) for organic products by commodity type.
Importers will be notified once all import requirements are incorporated in the AIRS System. From that time onwards, importers of organic commodities will be required to submit a digital copy of the organic product certificate when declaring organic products online using the Integrated Import Declaration (IID) system.
The Canada Organic Regime import requirements and the latest updates for importers and brokers of organic products are published on the Government of Canada website and accessed by this link: Canada Organic Regime import requirements. If you have questions, contact the Canada Organic Regime team, at [email protected].