Global pet-food import map — the gateway to 7 markets
Selling pet food across borders means clearing each destination's official import gateway. This map summarises, per market, the first-hand requirement a foreign pet-food shipment must satisfy. Each cell is a verbatim quote of a government source (or an in-repo C1 topic quoting one).
United States — FDA + USDA APHIS
- Animal food imported into the U.S. must be composed entirely of ingredients judged acceptable for such products (approved food additives, GRAS, or listed in the AAFCO Official Publication). No pre-market approval.
- Bioterrorism Act: food-producing facilities must register with FDA and provide prior notice for each shipment before arrival.
- A USDA APHIS Veterinary Services permit is generally required for animal food containing animal-origin material from countries with livestock diseases exotic to the U.S.
European Union — EC (Reg 2017/625 framework)
- The EU applies risk-based official controls so imports meet at least the same safety, quality and traceability standards as EU-produced feed.
- A third country must first be authorised by the Commission and appear on a list per category (animal health, plant health, residues, antimicrobial resistance); the exporting country communicates its list of establishments, published in TRACES-NT.
- Goods of animal origin need official certificates and are checked at Border Control Posts.
China — MOA + GACC
- Under MOA rules, overseas enterprises exporting pet feed must obtain an import registration certificate (进口登记证); without it, the product may not be sold or used in China.
- Imported pet food must pass both MOA product access and GACC enterprise (overseas establishment) access — the GACC "whitelist."
Japan — MAFF
- Under the Pet Food Safety Act, businesses that manufacture or import pet food must file a notification before starting with the MAFF regional agricultural administration office.
South Korea — MAFRA + APQA
- Imported pet food follows two parallel tracks: (1) feed ingredient registration under the Feed Management Act (Article 12), and (2) Import Health Requirements (IHRs) administered by the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA); facility approval via APQA (grace period extended to 2027-12-31).
Canada — Health of Animals Act
- Under s.16(1), a person importing animal food must present it to an inspector. Pet food qualifies as "animal food" — this is a live-animal/animal-product Act rather than a dedicated pet-food facility gateway, so the facility-registration leg is a partial gap.
Australia — DAFF / BICON
- Honest gap. Australia's import conditions live in the interactive BICON system; no static first-hand verbatim page for commercial pet-food import was retrievable (agriculture.gov.au pet-food URL 404; BICON requires per-product lookup). Not fabricated.
Method and honest gaps
First-hand where possible (US FDA page, EU EC Q&A quoted verbatim; CN/JP/KR/CA quoted from in-repo C1 topics that themselves quote first-hand statutes). Real gaps — AU (BICON interactive) and the CA facility-registration leg — are flagged, not filled with second-hand GAIN country reports.
Sources
import_market_access_matrix— derived compilation (methodderived_from_dataset): US FDA (ingredients acceptable + Bioterrorism facility registration/prior notice + APHIS VS permit), EU third-country list + official certificates + BCP, CN MOA import-reg cert + GACC whitelist, JP MAFF pre-start notification, KR Feed Mgmt Act Art.12 + APQA IHR two-track (facility grace to 2027-12-31), CA Health of Animals Act s.16(1) partial, AU BICON honest gap.