Before China’s requirements ever apply, Canada’s do. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is the competent authority for food exports, and for seafood bound to China its role runs deeper than a rubber stamp: the CFIA is also the body that recommends your establishment to Chinese customs.
The licence
The foundation is a Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence covering your actual activities. For exporters the key activity is preparing food for export. If your licence was scoped for domestic trade only, that’s the first fix.
The establishment list
Establishments exporting fish and seafood appear on Canada’s list of approved establishments, identified by a CFIA establishment ID. That ID matters twice over: it identifies you domestically, and it functions as the “overseas registration number” China’s system references for Canadian plants, one reason consistency between your Canadian paperwork and your China-facing labels is non-negotiable.
Export certification
Shipments travel with export certification (including health certificates) issued through CFIA processes, attesting the product meets the importing country’s requirements. The certificate must match the physical load exactly: species, form, quantities, establishment identifiers. “Close” is not a standard Chinese customs recognizes.
The CFIA–GACC handshake
For aquatic products, the CFIA certifies your CIFER account and recommends your establishment to GACC, the registration pathway that Decree 280 requires for higher-risk categories. Your Canadian standing is the ticket to the Chinese registration.
Where to verify
The authoritative source is the CFIA’s requirements library at inspection.canada.ca, where country-specific requirements for China are published and updated. We link suppliers to the source and walk it with them; a partner who paraphrases the regulator without pointing at it is a partner to question.
Our role: we make sure what reaches the CFIA is right the first time (licence scope, listing, certificate applications matching the load) so certification is routine, not drama. How it works.