The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) final rule requires that importers of organic products into the United States must be certified under the USDA organic regulations by a USDA-accredited certifier. This includes operations physically located outside of the United States that are acting as the importer of record for such shipments, regardless of any other certifications they hold for other organic activities.
After implementing SOE in March 2024, the Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA), sent a letter to the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) requesting an allowance until March 2025 for Canadian businesses acting as U.S. importers to become certified under the USDA organic regulations. At that time, the NOP recognized that after the rule was published there was confusion about the importer certification requirement due to the complexity of certain businesses’ organic activities and supply chains. NOP understood that some Canadian businesses previously thought that their COR handling/processing certification could also cover their U.S. importing activities and had struggled to achieve USDA-NOP certification or find an alternative certified importer within a short timeframe.
To avoid disruptions in trade, NOP temporarily allowed COR-certified operations acting as the U.S. importer of record to continue this activity under their COR certification while seeking USDA-NOP certification for importing. This meant that COR certifiers of these operations could use the COR listing in the USDA’s Organic Integrity Database (OID) in the “Recipient” section of the NOP Import Certificate. NOP and COTA communicated that Canadian businesses should continue to diligently pursue USDA certification for their importing activities to ensure prompt compliance with the U.S. requirements.
Currently, 15 months have passed since SOE was fully implemented. NOP, CFIA, and COTA are informing industry that the USDA NOP certification requirement for U.S. importers of organic products will be enforced beginning July 15, 2025. Starting on this date, COR-certified operations acting as the U.S. importer of record will need to be certified under the USDA organic regulations. NOP’s Organic Integrity Database (OID) system will be updated to limit the listing of operators in the “Recipient” (importer) field on NOP Import Certificates to USDA NOP-certified operations only.
