Additional controls on imports into the EU & NI
Affecting importers based in Northern Ireland & the EU
The European Commission has introduced new import controls from 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024. These additional controls apply to certain organic products imported from specific countries into the European Union or Northern Ireland.
These additional controls apply to certain organic products imported from specific countries, as detailed in the table below.
For the products identified in the table there are requirements for the EU border control posts (BCP) to test a percentage of those products as detailed in the table.
This additional sampling will be in place for those specific imports into the EU & Northern Ireland (NI) , so if you are an importer in NI, (or within the EU), and import any of the affected products into EU or NI, they may be sampled and tested by the BCP.
There are no additional actions that you need to take other than continuing to inform the BCP in advance of each consignment’s arrival.
If you do not import any of the affected products into EU or NI then these additional controls will not affect you.
The above applies only to EU and NI imports from those countries.
You can view the EU documents here.
For imports into GB the controls Defra communicated in 2021 remain in place for certain imports into GB from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Moldova, Turkey and China. As regards Ukraine the requirements for testing of imports still applies but the additional measures imposed on third country control bodies in Ukraine were suspended by Defra in 2022. For imports from India into GB there are import controls for organic turmeric.
If you have questions, contact our certification team at food.drink@soilassociation.org