Key Takeaways for Certified Organic Grower & Livestock Operations

Nonretail containers used to ship or store organic products will be required to identify the product as organic and display the lot number or shipping identification to link the container to the audit trail documentation. Audit trail documentation for nonretail containers must identify the last certified operation that handled the organic product. Send all new or updated labels to inbox@ccof.org for pre-approval prior to printing.

Each shipment of organic agricultural products imported into the United States must be associated with a valid NOP Import Certificate. Both the foreign exporter and the U.S. importer must get certified. If you are a CCOF-certified grower in Mexico and you export your organic crops to the United States, this requirement will also apply to you.

To meet these requirements:

• You (the exporter) will be responsible for requesting the NOP Import Certificate from CCOF and providing it to your certified organic importer.
• The importer will be responsible for filing the NOP Import Certificate data in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system.

If you are a CCOF-certified grower in Mexico and your customer exports to the United States, they are responsible for obtaining organic certification and requesting the NOP Import Certificate from their certifier.

For additional information, visit our Import/Export webpage.

Livestock and/or feed brokers as well as facilitators of sale, such as video auction yards, will be required to be certified to receive payment for certified organic animals and/or bulk livestock feed. If you are a CCOF-certified livestock operation and you source organic feed and/or animals from any uncertified brokers and/or facilitators of sale, please closely review all SOE information to determine whether these operations require certification by March 19, 2024. Contact us with any questions.

Operations will be required to develop monitoring practices to verify suppliers in the supply chain and organic status of products received to prevent fraud. Activities such as sourcing organic products, or sending organic products to other operations for storage, handling, or processing prior to the sale to your customer, require measures to prevent fraud or accidental representation of nonorganic products as organic.

CCOF does not certify producer groups (also known as grower groups), however regulations regarding producer groups are outlined under SOE.