Exporting to Brazil. First find out who regulates your product.
In Brazil the first question isn't about the buyer or the price. It's about which authority decides whether your product can come in.
Two authorities, two routes. Products of animal origin fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, MAPA. Other processed foods fall under the health agency, ANVISA. The route, timings and documents are completely different depending on which side you fall on.
For animal-origin products there are five conditions, all required, listed in Article 486 of Decree 9,013 of 2017: a country with an inspection system recognised as equivalent, an approved facility, a product registered in advance, compliant labelling, and a health certificate from the authority in the country of origin.
The label changed in 2022. Since 9 October 2022 Brazil has applied rotulagem nutricional frontal, a symbol on the front of the pack. It's the kind of change you discover once the batch is printed.
This guide covers food in general. For two products the route changes before the country even comes into it: wine travels with excise duty and its accompanying document, and olive oil has marketing and labelling rules all of its own. If you export either to Brazil, read this guide and the one for your product. For wine, the market detail is in wine in Brazil and the registered laboratory.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for small food producers and is deliberately short: in markets with two authorities and category-by-category rules, a page that lists everything is wrong before it's useful.
The template, to download
Twelve rows in three blocks: choosing the route based on the recipe; the five conditions for animal-origin products, with who each one depends on; the route for other foods; and the rows common to both (Chamber of Commerce certificate, shipment, deadlines). At the bottom, cells for the route, approval status, registered products and the nearest deadline.
| File | Contents | Link |
|---|---|---|
| BrazilExcel, one sheet | The two routes, the five conditions and who they depend on, a Status column with a drop-down, and cells for the details to keep to hand. |
The files are free. There's no form in the way, we don't ask for an email address, and we don't get notified when anyone downloads them. The first two conditions for animal-origin products don't depend on you and can't be bought: the sheet puts them first because they're the ones to check before promising a date.
MAPA or ANVISA: the question that comes first
The split is by the nature of the product, not by commercial category. A cheese, a cured meat or a dairy-based product falls under the Ministry of Agriculture. A vegetable preserve, pasta, olive oil or a baked product falls under the health agency.
The tricky part is mixed products, where a small amount of an animal ingredient moves the whole product onto the other route. It's the same problem the UK calls composite products, and it's solved the same way: by looking at the recipe, not the sales label.
The five conditions for animal-origin products
Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, citing Article 486 of Decree 9,013 of 2017, lists five conditions that must all be met at once. The goods must come from countries whose health inspection system has been assessed or recognised as equivalent, and from facilities approved to export to Brazil.
The other three: the product must be “previamente registrados pelo DIPOA” (registered in advance by DIPOA), must be labelled according to the specific rules, and must travel with a health certificate issued by the competent authority of the country of origin, meaning your ASL.
The first two conditions don't depend on you and can't be bought: they're relationships between states and facility approvals. The last three do depend on you, and they're the ones to work on while the first two are being checked.
| Condition | Who it depends on | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The country's systemrecognised as equivalent | The relationship between the Brazilian and Italian authorities. Not something your business does. |
Check it before promising a date. If recognition isn't in place for your category, there's no shortcut. |
| Approved facilityfor export to Brazil | Your facility, through the approval procedure handled by the Italian authority. |
Ask your ASL where the approval stands and how long it will take. It's the longest step. |
| Registered productwith DIPOA | The specific product, not the business. Each product is a separate case. |
Decide which products you're really going to bring in. Registering ten when you'll sell two is wasted work. |
| Compliant labellingBrazilian rules | You, together with the importer, who knows the local rules. |
Check before printing the batch, with front-of-pack labelling in force since 2022. |
| Health certificatefrom the country of origin | The competent Italian authority, at your request. |
Request it with the right notice: the lead times don't shrink, and the certification date can't come after departure. |
For the health certificate, the only one of the five points that's entirely in your hands and on an Italian body's timetable, the procedure is in how to apply for an export health certificate.
The label with the magnifying glass on the front
In October 2020 the Brazilian health agency published new rules on nutrition labelling, which came into force on 9 October 2022. ANVISA writes that the new rules “inova ao adotar a rotulagem nutricional frontal”, meaning they introduce nutrition labelling on the front of the pack.
For an Italian producer, this is the hidden cost of the Brazilian market: not a document, but different artwork, which has to be designed around the product's actual content and checked before printing. If you turn up with the EU label and have it translated, you'll find the problem once the batch is done.
The logic is the same as for every other market: check the label before printing, as explained in export labelling, country by country. Brazil just adds that here the check also covers the front of the pack, which is the part that sells your product.
Duties and origin: no preference, for now
The European Union and Mercosur have concluded an agreement, but it isn't being applied. Until it is, there's no preferential origin for Brazil: the buyer pays full duty and the EUR.1 plays no part.
The origin document that may be requested is the Chamber of Commerce certificate, which certifies the “made in” and doesn't reduce anything. The cost is modest and published: at the Lecce Chamber of Commerce, a certificate of origin with a copy costs €10, and each extra copy €5. The difference between the two documents, and why they get confused, is in EUR.1 or certificate of origin.
When approvals expire and nobody's watching
Facility approvals, product registrations and recognitions all have an expiry date, and none of these three clocks goes off by itself. With one market you can keep them in your head; with Brazil, China and a third country the dates run to a dozen, and you find out too late.
That's when deadlines need to come out of people's memory and into a place that watches them by itself, with operational deadline alerts. With one rule that matters more than the technology, set out in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document goes out until a person has read and approved it.
The whole difference comes down to whether you answer to the Ministry of Agriculture or the health agency, and that's decided by the recipe. If you send us the ingredients list, we'll tell you which route you're on and which of the five conditions applies to you first. No quote follows.
You'll hear back from a person, the same one who builds the systems, within 24 hours, with a read of your situation rather than a quote. Get in touch here; one line is enough.
Questions and answers
Who decides whether a food can enter Brazil, MAPA or ANVISA?
It depends on what the product is. Products of animal origin fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, MAPA; other processed foods fall under the health agency, ANVISA. The route, timings and documents are completely different between the two.
The tricky part is mixed products, where a small amount of an animal ingredient moves the whole product onto the other route. You settle it by looking at the recipe, not the commercial category.
What conditions apply to exporting products of animal origin to Brazil?
Five, and they all have to be met. Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, citing Article 486 of Decree 9,013 of 2017, requires: a country whose health inspection system has been assessed or recognised as equivalent, a facility approved to export to Brazil, a product registered in advance by DIPOA, labelling that complies with the specific rules, and a health certificate issued by the competent authority of the country of origin.
The first two don't depend on the business and can't be bought. The other three do, and it's worth working on them while the first two are being checked.
What does the label for the Brazilian market need to look like?
Since 9 October 2022 Brazil has applied front-of-pack nutrition labelling, introduced by rules published in October 2020. ANVISA says the new rules break new ground by adopting rotulagem nutricional frontal, meaning they put nutrition information on the front of the pack.
For an Italian producer, the cost isn't a document but different artwork, to be designed around the product's actual content and checked before the batch is printed.
Do you need an EUR.1 to export to Brazil?
No. The agreement between the European Union and Mercosur isn't being applied, so there's no preferential origin for Brazil: the buyer pays full duty and the EUR.1 plays no part.
The origin document that may be requested is the certificate of origin issued by the Chamber of Commerce, which certifies the “made in” and gives no right to any reduction.
How long does facility approval take?
There's no single timeframe, because it depends on the product category and the relationship between the two authorities. But it's the longest of the five steps, and the one to start first.
The question to ask your ASL, before promising the buyer a date, is where approval stands for your category and how long it will take. A date promised without that answer is a made-up date.
Notes on sources
- Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Importação de Produtos de Origem Animal, for the five conditions in Article 486 of Decree 9,013/2017, quoted from the original. Page opened on 6 September 2026.
- National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), Rotulagem de alimentos, for the rules published in October 2020, their entry into force on 9 October 2022 and the adoption of front-of-pack nutrition labelling, quoted from the original.
- The pages of ANVISA's regulatory archive wouldn't open for our tools, which is why this page doesn't give details of the symbol, the thresholds or the transitional periods for packaging already purchased: those need to be read in the regulation itself, with your Brazilian importer.
- Lecce Chamber of Commerce, costs and timings for export documents, for the certificate of origin fees. These are the fees published by that Chamber, not a national tariff.
- This page doesn't publish Brazilian duty rates, taxes or approval timeframes: they vary by product category, and there's no single honest figure to give.
With Brazil, the first question is which authority regulates your product.
MAPA or ANVISA changes the route, the timings and the documents, and it's decided by the recipe, not the product name. At Itria we start from the outside and build tailored digital systems for exporters. For you, that means more enquiries, fewer losses and less manual work. Drop us a line about what's slowing you down. We'll make the first move: we'll look at what a buyer sees when they search for you, and tell you what we found. Even if we never end up working together.