Home » North Macedonia

Exporting organic products to North Macedonia

North Macedonia still runs on a law harmonised with the previous EU organic regime. A control body must be established and authorised domestically — an EU certificate alone is not sufficient for the domestic market.

1) Mandatory organic standards and labels

The operative act is the Law on Organic Agricultural Production of 2009, applicable since 2010 and amended since, with its full bylaw package published the following year. It was harmonised with the old EU regime — Regulations 834/2007 and 889/2008 — and not with Regulation (EU) 2018/848.

A new law is in progress. A replacement aligning with the current EU acquis was before Parliament and had reached second reading in early 2026. Until it is adopted and in force, the 2009 law governs. Check its status before relying on anything described here.

The competent authority is the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy (MAFWE); inspection is carried out by the State Agricultural Inspectorate.

There is a national organic mark — a stylised sun with a seedling — whose form, content and colours are set by rulebook. The protected terms are органско / organsko and their equivalents, including био and еко.

2) Important voluntary standards and labels

  • EU organic — the mark that matters on export lots, and the standard most certified Macedonian operators hold.
  • USDA NOP, Bio Suisse, Demeter and Naturland — held for specific destination markets.
  • GLOBALG.A.P., BRC and IFS — buyer schemes rather than organic standards.

The national producer federation promotes the sector but does not operate a certification mark of its own.

3) Approved certification and control bodies

Domestic authorisation is mandatory. Under the 2009 law a control body must be established in the country, accredited to ISO/IEC 17065 by the national accreditation institute, and authorised by MAFWE, which keeps the official register. An EU certificate on its own does not qualify a body to certify for the Macedonian domestic market.

Authorised bodies have included Balkan Biocert Macedonia, Pro-Cert and Organik-Cert. One point to verify rather than assume: Balkan Biocert Macedonia is recorded as having voluntarily withdrawn from its ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation and been removed from the EU recognition list during 2025. Confirm its current MAFWE status before contracting with it.

For export to the EU, five bodies hold Macedonian MK-BIO codes on the Commission's Article 46 compliance list.

4) Import requirements

North Macedonia is a small organic producer — roughly a thousand registered operators on a few thousand hectares — and, like Albania, is primarily an exporter with a light import regime.

Imports are governed by the national organic law: the importer files with MAFWE, and the product must be certified to standards recognised as equivalent, alongside the ordinary customs and trade pack — invoice, transport documents, certificate of origin, quality certificates, and health or phytosanitary papers where applicable.

No equivalence arrangement exists with the EU, and North Macedonia is not on the EU's recognised third-country list. Exports to the EU run on Article 46 control body certification plus a TRACES Certificate of Inspection.

Alignment with Regulation (EU) 2018/848 is being handled through the accession process, with bilateral screening on agriculture having taken place in 2025. The precise documentary checklist an importer must file with MAFWE is not well published — ask the ministry or your control body directly rather than working from secondary sources.

5) Further information

Last reviewed: 2026-09-06