Import export licence. Four different things with the same name, and one is free.

Whoever is looking for an import export licence is looking for something that in Italy has no form. What you need exists, it has four different names, and one of the four is free.

This piece is part of the guide to export operations for the small food producer and covers only the start: what you need to have before you can ship. Everything that comes after, from the first reply to a buyer to the goods leaving, is in the guide's eight steps.

What people call a licence, and what it really is

The word licence covers at least four different things, and the confusion costs time because it leads you to look for an office that doesn't exist. This table puts the word on the left and the real thing on the right.

What it is called	What it really is	Who issues it
«Import export licence»	A company registration: VAT number and entry in the Companies Register. Anyone already producing and selling in Italy has it.	The Revenue Agency and the Chamber of Commerce, when the business was set up.
«The number for exporting»	The EORI number, the unique number by which customs throughout the Union identify an economic operator.	Only the Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, and free of charge.
«The health authorisation»	The registration or approval of the food plant. Anyone producing food already has it, and it is the prerequisite for all the certificates that follow.	The local health authority competent for the area.
«The import licence»on the buyer's side	The authorisation the importer needs in their own country: the Canadian licence, the Chinese registration of the plant, the alcohol permit in the Emirates.	The authority of the country of arrival, to your buyer. Not to you.
«AEO»	Authorised economic operator: a certification of reliability that gives simplifications and fewer checks. It exists in three forms, AEOC, AEOS and AEOF.	The Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, to those who meet criteria on organisation, accounting, solvency and security. You don't need it to start.

The row that leads people astray most often is the fourth. Whoever reads «you need a licence to import food into Canada» thinks they have to get it themselves, whereas it is an obligation of the buyer: it becomes your problem only if they don't have it, and then the negotiation stops before it starts. The country-by-country rows are on the individual market pages, starting with exporting food to Canada.

The EORI number is free, and there is a notice that says so

It is the part that makes this page useful, because whoever searches «how to get an import export licence» often runs into someone selling it. On 23 July 2025 the Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency published a notice on exactly this, after receiving reports about websites offering, for a fee, an EORI registration service. The conclusion of the notice is a single line:

«the issue of the EORI Number, besides being free of charge, can only be carried out by this Agency»

The request is submitted to the competent local Customs Office, following the procedures the Agency publishes in its dedicated section. What the number is for is explained by the Agency itself: identifying the economic operator uniquely with all customs authorities in the Union, for the exchange of information between customs and for the operator's dealings with them.

If someone asks you for money to assign you an EORI number, they are selling you a step you can do yourselves and that costs nothing. It is the only recommendation on this page that isn't about a procedure.

The order, which is the part that costs

The individual procedures are almost all short. What pushes a shipment back by months is doing them in the wrong order, because some are prerequisites for others and some depend on a foreign authority in no hurry.

When	What	How long it takes
Step 0probably done	VAT number, Companies Register, health registration of the plant.	None, if you already produce and sell. If the health registration is missing, everything else stops here.
Step 1straight away, and free	The EORI number, at the competent local Customs Office.	It is an application, not a process. Free, and issued only by the Agency.
Step 2as soon as there is a country	The registration the destination country requires of the plant: FDA for the United States, the customs portal for China, and so on.	Months. It is the longest item on the list, and the one almost nobody puts in the calendar in time.
Step 3by product	The authorisations and lists for your product: the ministerial lists for certain foods and countries, the excise number for wine.	Variable, and it depends on the product. Wine adds a whole layer: the wine documents.
Step 4per shipment	Health certificate from the ASL, Chamber of Commerce documents, proof of origin.	Days, but from submission of the complete documentation: two working days for the certificate of origin and three for the free sale certificate at the Lecce Chamber of Commerce.

The trap is in the last column of step 4, and it hides in six words: from submission of the complete documentation. The two days start when the attachments are right, and the right attachments take days of work beforehand. The cost of a €10 document is the afternoon of whoever prepares it, not the fee: the full sums are in what the first export order costs.

The most expensive trap, though, is at step 2, and it is a calendar one. A registration that takes months should be opened when the negotiation starts, not when the buyer confirms the order. Whoever opens it after confirmation finds they have to tell a buyer they have just won over that the goods leave in a quarter.

The health side, which is what holds up shipments

For food, the registration of the plant is the prerequisite, and the certificates the destination country asks for come from there. The Italian Ministry of Health indicates a precise route: companies wishing to activate export procedures should turn primarily to the local health authorities competent for the area, and certifications can only be signed by the official veterinarian or the officer of the food hygiene and nutrition service.

The notice period isn't national: each health authority sets it, and the range you find by reading three different pages goes from three to five working days. Whoever goes by the wrong ASL loses a departure. The procedure, ASL by ASL, is in how to request the health certificate; the difference between health certificate and free sale certificate is in which of the two the buyer is asking you for.

When the list stops living in someone's head

With one product and one market, this list can be kept in mind. The point where it breaks is multiplication: four products, three countries, and every combination with its own registration, its own expiry and its own notice period. At that point the problem stops being knowing what you need and becomes noticing that a registration expires in three weeks.

That is when the list should be taken out of someone's head and put where an alert arrives when it is time to act, not when it is time to have the document. With a constraint that matters more than the technology, written in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no request goes out to an authority without a person having read and approved it.

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