GACC Registration for Exporting Food to China
An important development has become part of the international trade landscape: the GACC registration for exporting food to China.
Regulation 248 has introduced the obligation of registration on the GACC portal (General Administration of Customs People’s Republic of China), namely the Chinese customs. The registration covers production sites and foreign products being introduced into the country. Once obtained, the GACC code is valid for 5 years.
Which products must be registered at the GACC?
Any food product exported to China must be registered on the GACC portal:
- Meat and meat-based products, aquaculture products, milk and its derivatives, dairy products, and swallow nests. These products were already required to be registered on the GACC previously, so nothing has changed. These must be pre-approved by the local competent authority.
- Honey, beekeeping products, eggs, edible fats and oils, filled pasta, edible cereals, milling industry and malt products, fresh and dehydrated vegetables, dried legumes, condiments, nuts and seeds, dried fruits, unroasted coffee beans, and cocoa beans. These products do not need to register independently on the portal but will be recommended to the GACC directly by the competent authority of the country of production.
- All other food products, considered to be low risk, will need to be registered on the GACC portal independently by the producer.
Therefore, if a company sells products under its own brand in China but has them manufactured by another company, it is not the former that must register on the GACC portal, but the latter, as the manufacturer. Likewise, the former company, in its capacity as exporter, must register as such on the relevant portal, which is also operated by GACC.
What datas are required?
GACC registration for exporting food products to China requires basic company information, such as the VAT number, legal representative, company name, registered address, contact person, and food production licence.
The products to be registered must be entered individually, specifying the product category, HS or CIQ code, product brand, and annual production or storage capacity. The information required may vary depending on whether the facility is a manufacturing or processing site, as well as on the HS code of the product.
Subsequently, the portal requires information regarding production: ingredients, use of own or public water, and a Chamber of Commerce extract in English. In the attachments, it will be necessary to upload documents marked as 'must pass,' which vary depending on the product.
For the procedure carried out through the Local Health Authority (ASL), the latter is required to conduct an on-site inspection of the production facility and complete a specific checklist, which will subsequently be submitted to the Italian Ministry of Health for account authentication purposes. Once the account has been authenticated, the specific application for the products intended for export to China can be submitted. The required documentation will also include the Risk Assessment Document (RAD), the HACCP manual, and the product technical data sheets.
Which difficulties for the registration?
Some steps in the registration process on the GACC portal are lingua cinese mandarino, anche se la maggior parte sono ormai disponibili anche in inglese. Sul portale dovrà essere registrato ogni singolo prodotto che si produce e si intende esportare in Cina.
Chinese Customs has increasingly begun requesting more detailed and specific documents and information concerning the products to be registered with GACC. Therefore, a good command of both Chinese and English is essential to fully understand the documentation required, including any additional clarifications or supplementary information that may be requested at a later stage.
The registration number is not issued immediately upon submission of the information through the portal. Depending on the procedure followed, the Chinese authorities require at least one month to review and assess the application. The manufacturing company must have obtained its GACC registration number BEFORE the goods arrive at Chinese customs. Otherwise, the goods will be rejected or destroyed. This may result in additional costs related to customs storage and delays, return shipment of the goods, or their destruction.
The registration code may not necessarily be directly printed on the label or outer carton but can also be affixed with a sticker on both packaging types, and it will be valid for 5 years.
The exporter, on the other hand, must indicate its GACC registration number on the shipping documents and communicate it to the importer.
Who has already chosen us
We have successfully obtained GACC registration numbers for more than 40 Italian and foreign food companies, through both the competent authority procedure and the simplified registration procedure.
If you need support applying the registration GACC for exporting food to China, fill in the form or contact us.
We can handle the entire GACC registration process on behalf of your company, from the submission of the application through to the issuance of the GACC registration number. This applies both to low-risk food products, which are subject to the simplified registration procedure, and to high-risk food products, which require authorisation from the competent authority.
To learn more about the latest developments regarding GACC Decree No. 280 on the registration of foreign food products with Chinese Customs, read our article.
