Announcement regarding new regulations for your exports to Saudi Arabia

We would like to inform you of the new regulations for your Halal exports to Saudi Arabia. Important changes have effectively taken place regarding the registration and batch Halal certificate system for the Saudi Halal Center (a department belonging to the SFDA) in Saudi Arabia. In this regard, we ask you to read the following information carefully and take the necessary measures immediately in order to meet these new requirements, in case your company or product category might be affected.

Last week, the SFDA in Saudi Arabia published a new announcement that imposes new rules and new fees for direct exports to Saudi Arabia. The subject being complex, we have made it our mission to provide you with a summary of the main changes below:

1. Please note that these new regulations do not apply to all products or product categories. For more information about the products which are affected by this new regulation please contact us or refer to the SFDE official website Saudi Halal Center (sfda.gov.sa).It is important to note that only product categories from the food industry are affected by these regulations, in particular, products of animal origin and those containing raw meat materials. Examples include meat products, gelatin, collagen, dairy products, butters, as well as fats and oils (including of vegetable origin). However, chemical products, flavourings, and cosmetics are explicitly excluded from this list and are therefore not subject to these new requirements.
2. However, it is important to note that there is an exception for the excluded product categories: as soon as a product bears the Halal logo and a Halal certificate is sent with the export documents, the product and the manufacturing company are also affected by this new regulation, even if it does not belong to the attached list of product categories.
3. It is also worth mentioning that these new rules only apply to products intended for direct export to Saudi Arabia. In fact, companies that do not export their products directly to Saudi Arabia, but sell their products to European intermediary companies, are excluded from these regulations.
4. If points 1, 2 and 3 apply to your company, i.e.: the category of your products falls under the food industry, or your products belong to an excluded category but are sold with a Halal logo and a Halal certificate, or you have a direct export activity to Saudi Arabia, then you are among the companies that must register on the SFDA registration portal.
   • Registration is done through your Halal certification body which must be recognised by the SFDA. This means that Halal certification by a recognised certifier of your site is a prerequisite for registration. Following successful registration, you will receive an annual authorisation certificate.
   • In addition, for each batch shipped to Saudi Arabia, a batch certificate must be issued and will accompany the goods, regardless of the quantity of the product.
5.  The fees for these services has been set from SFDA directly, more information about the fees can be sent to you if needed .
   • Finally, we kindly ask you to check the applicability of these requirements for your company. If you meet the above conditions, we ask you to register with us by sending us an email on: info@hqc.eu
   • Please note that if you have several production sites from which you export directly to Saudi Arabia, you must register all sites. However, in case you export only from a single site, certified as Halal by HQC for different production sites, you will only need to register the exporting site.
   • In case of questions or for any other request, we remain at your disposal.