Exporting organic food to the EU: e-COI in TRACES and recognised control bodies

Which route applies

For an imported product to be sold as organic, it must fulfil all the requirements of EU organic legislation, and the procedure depends on the country of origin. The EU has agreements on trade in organic products with Chile, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Eleven countries are recognised as equivalent: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Israel, Japan, Tunisia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the USA, for the product categories they are recognised for; there, control bodies or authorities supervised by the country's own competent authorities inspect and certify most products. For all other countries, inspection and certification are done by control bodies or authorities recognised and supervised by the European Commission, listed in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1378.

The certificate of inspection

• Every imported organic product needs an electronic certificate of inspection (e-COI) in TRACES.
• For equivalent countries, the e-COI is issued by control bodies or authorities designated by that country's competent authorities.
• For all other countries, it is issued by the Commission-recognised control body or authority.
• Without an e-COI, the products are held at the EU port of arrival and not released.
• Standard controls follow Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2306; certain products from certain countries had additional controls from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.

Before you ship

Check which route applies to your country and product, and contact a control body or authority that is recognised for it. Your EU importer must be ready to receive the e-COI in TRACES before the goods arrive. Control bodies that want Commission recognition register in the AGRI Portal and use the forms in OFIS 2.