Obligations of Exporters prior to Export Health Certificate being issued by SFPA
The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) issued a reminder information notice on the 24th February 2023 to Irish companies trading with third countries in relation to technical requirements in an evolving third country regulatory environment. Consignments of fish/fishery products and molluscan shellfish exported to third countries must be accompanied by an Export Health Certificate. These Export Health Certificates are issued by the SFPA, the Competent Authority under Irish and European legislation, in respect of fishery products manufactured, processed, or packaged in Ireland. A copy of the notice can be accessed through the Trade & Industry section of the SFPA website.
This information notice is being issued as a reminder to exporters, when applying for an Export Health Certificate, Food Business Operators (FBO) must adhere to SFPA’s certification protocols in order to have the Export Health Certificate issued. Applications should be notified electronically to a local SFPA port office via an email sent to the port area email address. An FBO must give reasonable notice - a minimum of 2 working days where possible - when applying to a local port office for a health certificate. Certain flexibility can be applied for ‘just in time’ exports.
As part of the inspection of the consignment prior to issuing the Export Health Certificate, Sea-Fisheries Protection Officers (SFPOs) of the SFPA shall, under Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council, perform a number of official controls as part of the certification process. These controls may include, but are not limited to, quality checks on frozen fishery products, sampling of the product, labelling checks, temperature checks, and gatherer’s cross checks. As part of these controls, the SFPO may also request to see documentation or data from the FBO’s own control systems such as sampling plans/results, cold chain records, traceability records and so on. In order to be issued with an Export Health Certificate, the FBO is required to facilitate these official controls and provide any documentation requested by the SFPO. Queries regarding the information notice may be addressed to SFPATradeandAudit@sfpa.ie
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