Starting January 1, 2022, organic products exported to Mexico will need to have LPO certification.
As you may have heard, in December of 2020 the Mexican government published new import requirements for organic products entering Mexico. These new requirements state that all organic products entering Mexico must be certified to Mexico’s LPO standards or come from countries with existing equivalence arrangements. If you export organic products to Mexico but choose not to certify to the LPO standards, please be aware that there could be interruptions to those exports.
In May, the USDA announced that Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) extended the deadline for U.S. organic exports to be certified to its Organic Products Law (LPO). The deadline has now been extended from June to December 31, 2021.
This means that USDA certified organic products can continue to be exported to Mexico without additional certification through the end of the year. Starting January 1, 2022, organic products exported to Mexico will need to have LPO certification.
We encourage all OneCert operations that will need LPO certification to continue export activities in 2022 not to wait to apply. Please be proactive and apply now!
OneCert would like to inform you of our collaboration with Mexicocert for LPO organic certification for those clients that are exporting certified organic products into Mexico. If you choose to work with OneCert and Mexicocert for LPO organic certification, please notify us so we may initiate the process.
The steps for certification to the LPO with Mexicocert is similar to the NOP certification process. Mexicocert will receive your application, complete a review of your application, schedule and complete an inspection, and issue a certification decision. It is our understanding that for operations already certified to the NOP, the inspection may take place over a virtual video meeting platform (such as Zoom and Skype). We have been told a typical certification decision may take about 3 weeks. Keep in mind this timeline is dependent upon your submitting a complete application and responding to any requests from Mexicocert in a timely manner.