There are only 4 months left before June 30, 2023 when relevant enterprises should supplement the registration information and materials in China import Food Enterprises Registration (Hereinafter referred to as CIFER). Recently, competent authorities in many countries have notified and advised enterprises to carry out relevant operations as soon as possible through email or official website announcement, and some countries even require that they complete the operations before the end of March 2023, so as to leave sufficient time for the authorities to review and recommend. This type of information and material supplement is mainly related to recommended registration, involving the enterprises that haven’t submitted registration information directly in the CIFER system for approval. Although the current registration status of these companies is“valid", it is unknown whether the subsequent registration status will be“valid”if the supplementary information is not completed by June 30, 2023. Foodmate pays close attention to the approval of import food enterprise registration, and now summarizes and analyzes the current approval situation. All data are from the official website of the GACC (as of February 17, 2023) and analyzed by Foodmate.

As of February 17, 2023, GACC has released a total of 79,431 enterprise approval results. Among them, 77,562 enterprises registered as "valid", accounting for 98% of the total approved; 1,483 enterprises cancelled their registration qualification; 383 enterprises were suspended from import; and 3 enterprises were revoked. See the figure below for details.

The registration date shown in the approval list published by GACC can be traced back to April 2014. As of February 17, 2023, it covered the registration information of enterprises in nearly 170 countries (regions). According to the data with the status of "valid", the number of approved enterprises in the top 40 countries accounts for more than 90% of the total. Among them, India ranks first with an absolute advantage of 10,120, followed by the United States of America and France. See the figure below for details.

Since the official implementation of “GACC Decree No. 248” on January 1, 2022, as of February 17, 2023, a total of 25,833 enterprises with "valid" approval status have been listed. Among them, France ranks first with 3,562 approved enterprises, followed by Japan, Italy and other countries. See the figure below for details.

According to the requirements of “GACC Decree No. 248”, the validity period of registration is 5 years, and the expiration date of registration validity of each enterprise is dynamically displayed in the GACC approval list. According to the statistics on this date, the registration period of enterprises in the current list is distributed between 2022-2028. See the figure below for details. 

According to the analysis of Foodmate, most of the enterprises with maturities from 2022 to 2025 are recommended to register. Such enterprises are involved into renewal and change of registration qualification, especially those whose registration qualification expires in 2022 and 2023, and need to supplement information and materials in the CIFER system as soon as possible according to the arrangement of the competent authorities of the host country. Of course, enterprises with an expiration date after 2024 may also face the same problem. Although some enterprises have renewed their registration, the information and materials in the CIFER system may still not be supplemented. Foodmate once again reminds you of a very important date: June 30, 2023. It is recommended that you start to prepare for the change of registration as soon as possible. The product categories and number of enterprises involved are shown in the figure below.

Foodmate has rich practical experience in enterprise registration, serving and guiding more than 100 enterprises in more than 20 countries (regions). If you have any questions or concerns about the enterprise registration, please do not hesitate to contact us.