Exporting organic products to Albania
Albania is overwhelmingly an organic exporter with a light import regime — and it is the one country in the Western Balkans that accepts an EU organic certificate at face value on import.
1) Mandatory organic standards and labels
The governing act is Law No. 104/2024 on organic production, labelling of organic products and their control, which replaced the 2016 law. It is deliberately modelled on Regulation (EU) 2018/848 and its delegated and implementing acts, with the bylaw package drafted to take effect from the start of 2025.
The competent authority is the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for registration and approval; the National Food Authority (AKU) carries out official control of organic food and feed, including on imports.
The law protects organik, biologjik and ekologjik, together with the abbreviations bio and eko — all treated as equivalent and usable only on certified product. GMOs and ionising radiation are prohibited.
On the national logo: the law provides for one, and the predecessor regime set its form by government decision. Confirm the current decision before committing to artwork — the implementing bylaws under the 2024 law were still being adopted, and the logo decision may have been reissued.
2) Important voluntary standards and labels
- EU organic — carried on export lots and the standard most Albanian certified operators hold.
- USDA NOP, Bio Suisse, Naturland and Demeter — available through foreign certifiers operating in Albania.
- FairWild and organic wild-collection schemes — disproportionately important, because Albanian organic volume is dominated by wild-collected medicinal and aromatic plants, sage and juniper among them.
- GLOBALG.A.P., BRC and IFS — common buyer requirements, but not organic standards.
3) Approved certification and control bodies
Control bodies must be approved by the Minister of Agriculture to certify against the national law, and the list is published on the ministry's website.
Albinspekt is the only Albanian-domiciled body, part of the Swiss bio.inspecta group since 2017. bio.inspecta itself holds ministry approval for the national scope, and Ecocert and A CERT also operate.
For export to the EU, seven bodies hold Albanian AL-BIO codes on the Commission's Article 46 compliance list.
4) Import requirements
Albania accepts EU certification directly. Organic product may be imported where it is certified in an EU member state, or by a control body the EU has recognised. There is no separate Albanian import authorisation and no Albanian re-certification requirement — which distinguishes Albania sharply from North Macedonia and Türkiye.
Consignments need the ordinary trade and customs pack — invoice, transport documents, certificate of origin, health and phytosanitary documents where applicable — plus the organic certificate or certificate of inspection for the operator.
Exporting from Albania to the EU
There is no organic equivalence or recognition agreement between Albania and the EU, and Albania does not appear on the EU's recognised third-country list. Albanian exports therefore travel on Article 46 control body certification plus an electronic Certificate of Inspection in TRACES, following the expiry of the older equivalence recognitions at the end of 2024.
Alignment with Regulation (EU) 2018/848 is an EU accession obligation, so expect the Albanian regime to continue converging on the EU rules rather than diverging from them.
5) Further information
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentThe organic law, the implementing bylaws and the list of approved control bodies.
- National Food Authority (AKU)Official control of organic food and feed, including checks on imports.
- AlbinspektThe Albanian-domiciled certification body; scopes, procedures and fees.
- FAOLEX — AlbaniaConsolidated Albanian agricultural and organic legislation.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-06