Exporting to Canada. The licence is theirs, the documents that support it are yours.
In Canada nobody will ask you to get a licence. They will ask you to support someone else's, and the difference only shows in the amount of paperwork you will have to produce.
The Safe Food for Canadians licence belongs to the importer, not the Italian producer. Anyone without a fixed place of business in Canada who qualifies as a non-resident importer can still apply for it, but it remains an obligation on the Canadian side.
That licence rests on a preventive control plan, and the plan includes verifying the foreign supplier. The practical consequence is that the importer will ask you for procedures, analyses and documents, and will ask for them in writing.
The label is bilingual. The Canadian agency writes that mandatory information on consumer prepackaged food must be shown in both official languages, French and English.
To ship you need four fixed documents (export invoice, packing list, transport document, export customs declaration) plus the CETA origin declaration on the invoice, and above €6,000 the REX number. The fixed base is in the documents that accompany the shipment.
This guide applies to food in general. For two products the path changes before the country does: wine travels with excise and its accompanying document, and olive oil has marketing and labelling standards all of its own. Whoever exports one of the two to Canada reads this guide and the product one.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for the small food producer. The first thing the Canadian importer will ask you for is the technical sheet: the template to fill in is ready in Italian and English.
Who needs the licence
The licence to import food into Canada must be held by whoever brings the goods into the country, for the commodity categories they import. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency provides that even those without a fixed place of business in Canada can apply as a non-resident importer; those with a fixed place of business in the country must apply as an established importer.
For an Italian producer selling to a Canadian distributor, the consequence is simple: the licence isn't your obligation. It becomes your problem only if the buyer doesn't have it, and then the negotiation stops before it starts. It is the first question to ask.
The preventive control plan, and why it concerns you
Behind the licence there is a written document: the preventive control plan, which explains how the importer ensures that imported food is safe and compliant. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's guidance is explicit about the level required:
«The SFCR requires that imported food be subject to the same level of hazard analysis and preventive food safety controls as food prepared in Canada.»
The same guidance requires foreign suppliers to have preventive controls corresponding to those in sections 47 to 81 of the Canadian regulations, or different controls that are equally effective in managing the risks. In other words: someone will have to describe in writing how you work, and that someone is you.
That is why a Canadian negotiation produces more document exchanges than a European one. It isn't commercial mistrust: your buyer is filling in a document that has to stand up to an inspection, and they fill it in with what you send them.
The label in two languages
The general rule is written in one line: «Mandatory information on consumer prepackaged food must be shown in both official languages, that is, French and English». It applies to the mandatory information, not to everything: the name and principal place of business of the manufacturer may appear in only one language.
The exceptions exist and are narrow. They concern specialty foods, including imported ones that are not widely available in Canada and have no local equivalent; local foods, sold only in the jurisdiction of production and adjacent administrative units, where one of the two official languages is the mother tongue of less than 10% of residents; and foods approved for a test market.
On paper the specialty food exception looks made to measure for a niche Italian product. In practice it is an assessment for the Canadian authority, not you, and building a commercial launch on it is a gamble. It pays to ask the buyer whether they intend to rely on it, before printing.
The customs preference exists, and is claimed on the invoice
With Canada the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is being applied, so preferential origin exists and is worth money to the buyer. The EUR.1 isn't used: the preference is claimed with the origin declaration, and above the threshold REX is needed. The difference between origin documents is in EUR.1 or certificate of origin.
| Obligation | Whose it is | What you need to provide |
|---|---|---|
| SFC licenceto import | The importer's. Anyone without a fixed place of business in Canada can apply as a non-resident importer. |
Nothing, if the buyer has it. If they don't, the negotiation stops here: ask on day one. |
| Preventive control planof the foreign supplier | The importer's, who must describe the assurances obtained from each foreign supplier. |
Procedures, hazard analysis, control measures and checks, put in writing. It is the heaviest part. |
| Bilingual labelFrench and English | Of whoever places the product on the Canadian market, so in practice the importer. |
The content to translate, that is, the complete and up-to-date technical sheet. Translation can't be done without the data. |
| Origin declarationCETA | Yours. It is made on the invoice or another commercial document describing the products identifiably. |
Above €6,000 you need the REX registered exporter number, applied for at the Italian Customs Agency's offices. |
When the document load outgrows the person carrying it
A market that asks for written procedures, analyses and periodic checks produces a volume of documents that doesn't end at the first shipment: it repeats at every renewal, every new product, every inspection by the buyer. It is a recurring load, not an entry cost.
That is the point where the documents should be taken out of one person's folders and put where they are formed from the same data, with documents compiled from the same base. With a constraint that matters more than the technology, written in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document goes out without a person having read and approved it. On a supplier declaration that signature is substance.
The Canadian bottleneck is almost always on the buyer's side. If you write to us with what your importer told you about the licence, we tell you whether that answer holds up and which documents they will ask you for afterwards, so you prepare them in advance instead of under pressure.
A person replies, the same one who then builds the systems, within 24 hours, with a reading of the situation and not with a quote. You write from here, and one line is enough.
Questions and answers
Do you need a licence to export food to Canada?
Not the Italian producer. The Safe Food for Canadians licence is needed by whoever imports the goods into Canada, for the commodity categories they import. Anyone without a fixed place of business in Canada can apply as a non-resident importer; anyone with one must apply as an established importer.
The question to ask the buyer on day one is whether they already hold the licence for your product category. If they don't, the negotiation stops before it starts.
What is the preventive control plan and why does it concern me?
It is the written document in which the importer explains how they ensure that imported food is safe and compliant. The Canadian guidance writes that imported food must be subject to the same level of hazard analysis and preventive controls as food prepared in Canada.
Inside that plan is the verification of the foreign supplier, that is, you. In practice the importer will ask you for procedures, control measures and checks in writing, and use them to fill in a document that has to stand up to an inspection.
Does the label for Canada have to be in English and French?
Yes, for the mandatory information. The Canadian agency writes that mandatory information on consumer prepackaged food must be shown in both official languages. The manufacturer's name and principal place of business can stay in one language.
The exceptions concern specialty foods, local foods and foods approved for a test market. These are assessments for the Canadian authority: it pays to ask the buyer whether they intend to rely on them before printing a batch.
Do you need the EUR.1 to export to Canada?
No. With Canada the customs preference under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is claimed with an origin declaration, made on an invoice or another commercial document describing the products in enough detail to identify them.
Above €6,000 in value the exporter must have registered exporter status and state their REX number, obtained by applying to the territorial offices of the Italian Customs Agency.
How long does it take to open the Canadian market?
It depends almost entirely on the buyer. If they already hold the licence for your category and an active preventive control plan, the bottleneck becomes the documentation you have to produce and the translation of the label.
If instead the licence has to be applied for, or your category isn't covered by theirs, lead times lengthen by months and don't depend on you. That is why this question should be asked before discussing prices and volumes.
Notes on sources
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Guide for food importers: prepare your preventive control plan, for the level of control required on imported food and the verification of the foreign supplier. The quoted sentence is verbatim. Page opened on 6 September 2026, date modified stated 23 July 2026.
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Bilingual food labelling, for the general rule quoted verbatim and the three exemption categories, including the 10% of residents threshold. Page opened on 6 September 2026, date modified stated 3 September 2025.
- Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, document on the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, for the origin declaration and the registered exporter system.
- This page doesn't publish Canadian duty rates or taxes for individual tariff headings: they change by product category and should be read against the customs code of your product.
The first question to the Canadian buyer isn't about price.
It is about the licence: if they have it for your category, the rest is weeks; if they don't, it is months that don't depend on you. With Itria we start from the outside to build custom digital systems for exporters. For you that translates into more requests, fewer losses and less manual work. Write us a line about what weighs on you. We take the first step: what a buyer sees when they look you up, and what we found there. Even if we don't end up working together.