Export-grade produce: what the destination requires of your production project
Sources reviewed 2026-10-23
Short answer
A premium export crop has to meet the destination's plant-health rules, pesticide residue limits, marketing standard and food-safety law, plus the exporting country's own certification and licensing. Those rules decide part of what a greenhouse, orchard or farm project must procure: surveillance and records, residue monitoring, packhouse grading, pre-cooling and cold chain, and traceability. Each guide below lists the official requirement with its authority, jurisdiction and source date, keeps SeedMatch's procurement advice separate, and says what could not be verified.
- Greenhouse tomatoes: Morocco → European Union
Tomato fruit entering the EU from Morocco needs a phytosanitary certificate issued by ONSSA and must meet the EU's pest-specific conditions for tomato fruit, the EU maximum residue levels and the EU marketing standard for tomatoes. Since 1 January 2025 the EU's ToBRFV rules apply to tomato plants for planting, including seed, not to harvested fruit. A production project should therefore budget for pest surveillance and traceability at the production site, residue monitoring, and a packhouse able to grade to the EU classes.
- Fresh blueberries: Peru → United States
Peruvian blueberries need a phytosanitary certificate from SENASA and must meet USDA APHIS entry conditions, which are published in the APHIS ACIR database. APHIS has authorised cold treatment or methyl-bromide fumigation against fruit flies, and irradiation as an alternative, but confirm the current conditions in ACIR. Covered farms must also meet the FDA Produce Safety Rule, and residues must stay within EPA tolerances. A production project should plan pre-cooling and cold-chain capacity, agricultural-water assessments and packhouse hygiene from the start.
- Fresh avocados: Kenya → European Union
Kenyan avocados entering the EU need a phytosanitary certificate from KEPHIS and must meet EU maximum residue levels and the EU general marketing standard. Kenyan exporters also need a Horticultural Crops Directorate export licence and KEPHIS registration, and exports follow AFA season openings and closures. An orchard project should plan traceability, maturity testing, packhouse capacity and cold chain to meet those controls.
How to use these guides
They are orientation for planning a production project, not legal advice or a shipment checklist. Rules change and depend on the exact product, origin area and buyer contract, so confirm the current requirement with the named authorities, and with your importer, before each season.
SeedMatch reviews commercial projects from USD 250,000 at no cost to the buyer and does not certify produce, issue documents or guarantee market access, yields or prices.