Organic import requirements, country by country

If you export certified organic food, the rules that decide whether your consignment can be sold as organic are set by the importing country, not by yours. This site summarises those rules market by market.

Each country page follows the same five headings, so you can compare markets quickly:

Mandatory organic standards and labels — the regulation, the official mark, and what may legally be called organic
Important voluntary standards and labels — the private schemes that decide whether retailers will actually list you
Approved certification and control bodies — who can certify you, and where the official list is published
Import requirements — the documentation each consignment needs, and whether your existing certification is recognised at all
Further information — the primary sources, so you can check the current position yourself

The single question to answer first: does the destination accept your existing certification, or must you be certified again to its national standard?

Some markets recognise foreign certification through an equivalence or recognition arrangement. Others — China and Brazil among them — recognise none, and require certification by a body they have accredited themselves, whatever your USDA, EU or JAS status.

Countries covered

All twenty-six country profiles are listed above. See About for how the summaries are compiled and what they are not.

How to use these pages

Work in this order. It is the order in which a consignment actually fails.

Check recognition. If the destination has no arrangement covering your country and your product category, nothing else on the page matters until you arrange certification to its standard.
Check product scope. Arrangements are commonly narrower than they look — processed food only, plant products only, or excluding aquaculture, wine, honey or animals treated with antibiotics.
Check the certifier. Recognition usually attaches to a named control body on a published list, not to a country in general. Confirm your certifier appears on the destination's current list, for your product category.
Check the documentation. Most markets now require an electronic, shipment-specific certificate issued before the goods leave. These are generally issued by the exporting certifier and cannot be obtained retrospectively.
Check the label last. Organic labelling follows the rules of the destination market, not the origin — including which mark you may use, the certifier code format, and the origin statement.

Rules change often, and several of the arrangements described here have expiry dates or pending amendments. Treat every page as a starting point and verify against the primary sources listed on it.

Last reviewed: 2026-09-06