Exporting organic products to Canada

Canada's rules differ from the US in ways that catch exporters who assume the two are interchangeable: there is no "100% organic" category, "made with organic ingredients" is not accepted, and the certification body's name is mandatory.

1) Mandatory organic standards and labels

The governing law is the Safe Food for Canadians Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR), with organic products dealt with in Part 13. The technical requirements sit in the Canadian Organic Standards, CAN/CGSB-32.310 (general principles) and CAN/CGSB-32.311 (permitted substances), with 32.312 covering aquaculture.

What may be called organic

Three differences from the United States

• "100% organic" is not a Canadian category. Anything at or above 95% is simply organic.
• "Made with organic ingredients" is not acceptable in Canada — CFIA treats it as unclear.
• The certification body's name is mandatory wherever an organic claim appears. Certified organic standing alone is treated as misleading.

The Canada Organic logo

Voluntary, and restricted to product with 95% or more organic content certified under the Canada Organic Regime. Imported product may carry it, but must then show either Product of [country] immediately preceding the origin, or Imported, in close proximity to the logo — in both official languages.

One trigger worth knowing: a product sold only within a single province normally sits outside Part 13, but if it carries the logo, full Part 13 compliance applies regardless.

2) Important voluntary standards and labels

All private, none recognised under the SFCR, and none discharges the obligation to name the certification body.

• Demeter / Biodynamic — requires Canada Organic compliance underneath.
• Regenerative Organic Certified — requires NOP or an approved equivalent underneath.
• Non-GMO Project Verified — about genetic engineering, not organic; CFIA has publicly questioned whether the seal supports a non-GMO claim in Canada.
• Fairtrade Canada — social and trade-terms criteria, independent of organic.
• Bio Suisse (Bud) and Naturland — no Canadian standing. Swiss and German product enters on the government arrangement, not the private mark.

Two are more than merely private. Québec Vrai, accredited by CARTV, has real legal effect under Quebec's statutory regime. The BC Certified Organic checkmark is a government-sanctioned provincial mark, but valid within British Columbia only — it does not authorise interprovincial or export sale.

Regenerative, grass-fed, pasture-raised and beyond organic have no Canadian standard behind them.

3) Approved certification and control bodies

CFIA accredits Certification Bodies (CBs), with assessment work carried out by Conformity Verification Bodies against ISO/IEC 17065. The official list of accredited CBs is published by CFIA and is the authoritative source.

Most accredited CBs are based outside Canada — a large contingent in India, and others across the US, Mexico, China, New Zealand, Argentina, the UK and elsewhere. An exporter can generally certify to the Canadian standard locally.

Four things to check on the list before choosing

1. Scope — not every body holds both 32.310 and 32.311, and only a minority hold aquaculture.
2. Grower-group certification — held by some bodies only.
3. Country-of-operation qualifiers — some listings are limited to particular uses or destinations.
4. Expiry date — accreditations run on five-year cycles and each row carries its own.

Operator verification runs through each CB's own client list; there is no central CFIA registry of certified operators.

4) Import requirements

The organic product certificate

Every organic import must be covered by a certificate issued to the last operation that handled the product before export, by a CFIA-accredited CB or a body approved under an equivalency arrangement. It must state the standard, be valid at the time of import, and include the product list identifying products by specific name. Product names must match the label, the shipping bill and the import documentation. English or French only. Retain for five years.

The certificate upload requirement

The importer or broker must upload a digital copy of the organic product certificate into the Integrated Import Declaration through CBSA's Single Window, under the organic certificate registration type. CFIA treats this as a condition of admissibility, and a declaration with neither an upload nor a reference number from a previous upload is rejected by the system.

Single Window returns a unique reference number that can be reused on later declarations covered by the same certificate. CFIA reviews certificates after arrival rather than at the border.

Equivalency arrangements

Nine are in force — the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and Costa Rica. Their scopes differ sharply:

• United States — excludes sodium nitrate products, hydroponic and aeroponic production, and animal products not meeting Canadian stocking rates. Does not extend to USDA's Israel or New Zealand arrangements.
• European Union — aquaculture excluded except seaweed; wine is in scope.
• Mexico — asymmetric: plant-origin products, processed plant foods and beekeeping products only. Livestock and animal-origin processed foods are excluded.
• South Korea — the narrowest: processed products only, finally processed in Korea, at least 95% organic.
• Taiwan — the broadest, and the only one covering aquaculture. Honey excluded. Certificates valid three years rather than the usual one.
• Japan — aquaculture excluded; honey and seaweed outside it.

Several arrangements require an export or transaction certificate. These must not be uploaded with the import declaration — keep them on file for five years for CFIA verification.

Licences and other obligations

An importer of organic food needs a Safe Food for Canadians import licence. Organic feed and seed importers do not need a food import licence but must still meet Part 13. Note that the imported for export exemption elsewhere in the SFCR does not exempt Part 13 — organic rules still apply to transhipped product.

Importers are not themselves required to be certified, though CFIA encourages it. If an importer further processes, packages or labels imported organic product for interprovincial trade, that must happen under an accredited CB's oversight.

Outside the scope of the organic rules entirely: fertilizers, natural health products, pet food, cosmetics and textiles.

5) Further information

• CFIA organic import requirementsThe certificate criteria and the country-by-country documentation table — the most important page for an exporter.
• CFIA list of accredited certification bodiesOfficial list with scopes, expiry dates and verification bodies.
• CFIA equivalency arrangementsAll nine arrangements with the letters exchanged and the scope limits.
• Safe Food for Canadians RegulationsThe binding legal text; Part 13 covers organic products.
• CFIA organic standards pageCurrent editions of CAN/CGSB-32.310, 32.311 and 32.312, free to download.
• CFIA organic claims guidanceClaim thresholds, logo conditions, the certification body naming rule and bilingual requirements.

Last reviewed: 2026-09-06