Quality & compliance
What we hold, and what we don't
Suppliers routinely blur legal requirements, buyer expectations and future ambitions into one certification list. We separate them, because the difference determines whether you can actually sell our product in your market.
Almekora Agro currently holds no food-safety certifications.The facility is not yet built, so it cannot be audited. The roadmap below states what we intend to hold and when. We will not display a certification, membership or institutional logo we are not genuinely registered, certified or authorised to use.
Certification
Roadmap
Planned
(7)HACCP-based procedures
Legal requirement (EU)
Regulation (EC) 852/2004 Art. 5 requires food business operators to implement procedures based on HACCP principles. Third-party certification of those procedures is separate and not itself mandatory.
Traceability system
Legal requirement (EU)
Designed for lot-level traceability back to farmer group.
ISO 22000
Buyer expectation
Valuable, not legally mandatory.
BRCGS / IFS / FSSC 22000 (GFSI)
Buyer expectation
Not a legal requirement, but many larger EU and multinational buyers will not open an account without a GFSI-recognised certification. Scheme choice depends on target buyers: BRCGS for UK retail, IFS for German and French buyers, FSSC 22000 for the Netherlands and Southern Europe.
Halal certification
Market access (Middle East)
BSTI licence / BFSA registration
Bangladesh domestic
Full Bangladesh-side requirement list to be verified with an export consultant.
Organic (EU / USDA)
Premium market access
EU and USDA Organic are separate certifications with separate supply-chain requirements. EU organic imports require an electronic Certificate of Inspection via TRACES. Not advertised until certification, segregated sourcing, processing controls and documentation are all genuinely in place.
The distinction
Legal requirement vs buyer expectation
Legally required
- HACCP-based procedures. Regulation (EC) 852/2004 Article 5 requires food business operators to implement procedures based on HACCP principles. Primary production is exempt; a processing unit is not. Third-party certification of those procedures is a separate matter and is not itself mandatory.
- Traceability throughout the supply chain.
- Contaminant and MRL limits — product-category and destination specific.
- Novel Food authorisation for anything not significantly consumed in the EU before May 1997.
- Proof of origin. Under the EU GSP system, preferential origin is claimed via a statement on origin made by an exporter registered in the REX system, with an exemption below the applicable consignment value threshold.
Commercially expected
Not legally required — but often decisive.
- GFSI-recognised certification — BRCGS, IFS or FSSC 22000. Many larger EU and multinational buyers will not open an account without one. Scheme choice follows the buyer base.
- ISO 22000 — valuable, not mandatory.
- Social audits — SMETA, amfori BSCI.
- Retailer-specific MRLs stricter than the legal maximum.
- Sustainability certification — Organic, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance.
Testing
Testing regime
- Pesticide residues (MRLs)
- Tested per lot against destination-market limits and the buyer’s own specification. Major European retailers commonly apply internal limits stricter than the legal maximum — we test to the buyer’s spec, not just the regulation.
- Heavy metals
- Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, against product-specific destination limits.
- Microbiological
- Total plate count, yeast and mould, E. coli, coliforms and Salmonella.
- Aflatoxin
- Where applicable to the product. Limits are product-category and destination specific and are verified per SKU rather than applied as a single figure.
- Retained samples
- Held per lot for the product’s stated shelf life, so any buyer query can be checked against the actual material shipped.
Testing laboratory relationships will be named here once appointed.
Export documentation
Certificates and registrations
We separate documentation into company registrations, facility approvals, food-safety certifications, product-specific export documents, shipment-specific documents, and buyer-requested documents — because they are obtained from different bodies on different timelines.
On phytosanitary certificates: requirements vary by product, processing state, HS classification and destination, and for processed and dried products they differ from those applying to fresh produce. We confirm the applicable requirement per SKU and per destination rather than promising a blanket document set.
On the United States: where the facility is covered, FDA food facility registration is our responsibility, renewable every two years. The Foreign Supplier Verification Program is the importer's responsibility — our role is to support it with hazard analysis, process controls, testing records, traceability and supplier documentation.
EU trade preferences
Bangladesh currently benefits from the European Union’s Everything But Arms preferences. Bangladesh is scheduled to graduate from LDC status on 24 November 2026, and a transition period for continued EBA preferences is currently expected to run through 2029. Eligibility remains subject to the applicable EU rules, HS classification, rules of origin, and importer verification.