Exporting organic products to Brazil
Brazil has no equivalence agreement with any country. Foreign operators must be certified to the Brazilian standard by a MAPA-accredited body, and the SisOrg seal is mandatory on the label.
1) Mandatory organic standards and labels
The governing law is the 2003 organic agriculture law, regulated by a 2007 decree that creates SisOrg, the Brazilian organic conformity assessment system, comprising MAPA, the state inspection bodies and the accredited conformity assessment bodies. Detailed rules sit in MAPA normative instructions covering control mechanisms, forms of organisation, and the processing, storage and transport of organic products.
The federal SisOrg seal is mandatory on any product sold as organic in shops, supermarkets and other retail — explicitly including imported product. There are two versions: one for third-party audit certification and one for the participatory route. Bulk or unpackaged organic product must be identified by sign, label or equivalent.
What may be called organic
Only product certified through SisOrg, or sold by a producer registered for direct sale without certification through a social control organisation. That second route is limited to farmers' markets, direct-to-consumer sale and government procurement, and is not available to importers.
Product displayed as organic without the seal is liable to seizure. Where the packaging is the retailer's, or the product is loose, both the producer and the retailer can be penalised.
2) Important voluntary standards and labels
- Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia — the best-known participatory network, operating within the participatory conformity framework.
- IBD Ecosocial — social and environmental criteria layered on organic certification.
- Demeter — biodynamic.
- Fairtrade — social and trade-terms criteria, independent of organic.
Multi-certification of the same product to USDA NOP, EU or JAS is common among Brazilian exporters. Because the word orgânico is fully regulated in Brazil, voluntary marks sit on top of SisOrg rather than substituting for it.
3) Approved certification and control bodies
Certification is carried out by an Organismo de Avaliação da Conformidade Orgânica (OAC) accredited by MAPA, in one of two forms:
- Certificadora por Auditoria — a third-party audit certifier, MAPA-accredited and additionally accredited to ISO/IEC 17065.
- OPAC — a participatory conformity assessment body overseeing a participatory guarantee system, credentialed and supervised by MAPA.
MAPA states this directly: foreign producers must be certified by a MAPA-accredited certifier and must meet Brazilian requirements. Products certified to international standards such as NOP, EU or JAS are not automatically recognised as organic in Brazil — they must be certified to the Brazilian standard.
This is the single most important fact for an exporter to Brazil, and the practical difficulty is thinner than in China: the list of MAPA-accredited certifiers able to work in any given origin country is short. Check whether one operates in yours before planning the market at all.
Certified operators are entered in the Cadastro Nacional de Produtores Orgânicos, the national register, which is the public verification tool a Brazilian buyer will use.
4) Import requirements
No equivalence or mutual recognition agreement exists between Brazil and any country. The decree contemplates such agreements as the only exception to Brazilian certification, but none has been concluded.
The consequence: the foreign operator — and in principle every operator in the supply chain — must hold certification to the Brazilian organic regulation, issued by a MAPA-accredited body, whether a Brazilian certifier operating abroad or a foreign certifier that has obtained MAPA accreditation.
Documentation
- The SisOrg seal on the label.
- For non-prepackaged product, a copy of the organic certificate and a Declaração de Transação Comercial issued by the producer or the certifier.
- Buyers are expected to verify against the national register. A commercial invoice describing the goods as organic is explicitly not accepted as proof.
On top of the organic requirements: standard Brazilian import clearance through MAPA and VIGIAGRO, ANVISA rules for processed foods, and Portuguese-language labelling.
Watch the normative instructions, not the law. The detailed rules are updated by instrução normativa rather than by amending the statute or the decree, so the legal position can change without the headline legislation changing. Check MAPA's legislation index for new instructions before acting commercially.
5) Further information
- MAPA — regularisation of organic productionIncludes MAPA's explicit statement that NOP, EU and JAS certification are not recognised.
- MAPA — organic legislation indexThe law, the decree and all normative instructions, where the detailed rules actually change.
- List of accredited conformity assessment bodiesMAPA open data; check whether an accredited certifier operates in your country.
- Cadastro Nacional de Produtores OrgânicosThe national register of organic producers, and the public verification tool.
- Centro de Inteligência em OrgânicosSummary of Brazilian organic legislation and certifier lists.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-06