A Certificate of Inspection (CoI) needs to be endorsed before organic produce can be released into free circulation. It is a legal requirement under UK legislation for importers of organic produce to give advance notice in writing of the arrival of a consignment as well as provide a copy of the original Certificate of Inspection. In essence this means that you will need to submit both the pre-notification and certificate to us no later than 6 working hours before the arrival of the goods (there is a special exemption for Ro-Ro and airfreight as opposed to the 24 hours pre-notification required for seaports).
Organic consignments that have not been pre-notified using the procedure detailed below will not have their Certificates of Inspection endorsed by Dover Port Health Authority.
The Organic Products Regulations 2009 makes it an offence to contravene the regulation relating to the advanced notification of organic consignments and such contraventions shall be reported to the appropriate Trading Standards department and to the DEFRA Organic Farming Branch.
At the end of the transition period (31 December 2020), Great Britain lost access to TRACES NT for the purpose of importing organic food and feed from third countries. An interim paper-based system is in place which requires consignments of organic produce to be accompanied with a GB Certificate of Inspection.
Links to the new GB certificate templates and guidance documents can be found below:
The most significant changes to importing organic produce relate to:
- Box 2 on the CoI: this shows the organics regulations. The explanatory notes explain which box should be ticked depending on whether the third country is equivalent to GB or if they meet EU regulations.
Consignments leaving third countries before the end of the transition period will be accepted as long as they have an EU endorsed CoI on TRACES NT. Importers should notify ports that these consignments are arriving to avoid delays.
An electronic system is being developed to replace this interim system.