First, who can hold what
Certification questions in tea go wrong when nobody states who the certificate belongs to. Producers and packers hold production-side registrations and system certificates. Laboratories hold testing accreditation and issue reports. Importers hold the obligations that arrive with the goods at your border. Camellane is a sourcing desk - it coordinates partner gardens and packing facilities and manages programs - so the honest position is stated once and kept: the desk holds no certificates, and every document in a program file comes from the supplying facility or the laboratory, issued for that program. What the desk adds is verification: reading the certificates, checking scopes and validity, matching them to the actual facility on the purchase order, and assembling the file before goods move.
Export basics: facility registrations
| Item | Who holds it | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Export food production facility registration | The producing or packing facility | Standard for export tea from China |
| FDA food facility registration | The producing or packing facility | Programs shipped to the United States |
| Destination-market production licensing | The facility, per local rules | Confirmed per destination during screening |
| Laboratory accreditation | The testing laboratory | Every per-batch panel, every market |
Two notes save compliance teams the most trouble. Registration is a property of the facility that made or packed the goods, so the desk checks that the name on the registration matches the name on the shipment documents - a mismatch is exactly the kind of detail that surfaces at the worst possible moment. And registrations are current-state documents: validity is re-confirmed at order stage rather than inherited from last season's file, since facilities renew, move and rename.
Residue limits: the market sets the bar
For European Union destinations, residue compliance is assessed against the MRL regime under EC 396/2005, as amended - the desk cites the framework as the public reference and tests against the current version, because amendments are how the regime actually works. Other destinations run their own tables; the practical method is identical: fix the destination market first, then set the panel scope to that market's requirements, then test per batch. The per-batch third-party panel - pesticides, heavy metals, microbiology - is issued in the buyer's name so the report fits your import file directly; what the panels cover is described under quality control, and the EU framework is unpacked for buyers in EU pesticide limits for tea. The desk does not quote limit values on this page - the binding table is the one in force for your market at shipment time.
Organic chains, verified per program
Organic claims live or die on the chain, not the logo. Where a program uses certified material, the desk verifies the chain per program: the certificate held by the supplying party, its scope and validity, transaction records for the certified volume, and the match between the certified quantity and what actually ships. The relevant regimes are USDA NOP for US-bound organic claims, the EU organic regime, and JAS for Japan; material is sourced through channels that hold or carry the certificates, and the "organic" claim on your label follows the certified material, never the other way round. This is deliberately cautious - a certificate that does not cover the exact lot, the exact facility and the exact volume is not evidence, and the desk would rather narrow the claim than stretch the paper. The program mechanics for certified ranges sit with the gift and specialty lines such as the organic tea gift box.
System and scheme certificates at partner level
Beyond the regulatory floor, partner facilities commonly hold system certificates - HACCP food safety plans or ISO 22000 management systems - and some supply chains carry scheme certification such as Rainforest Alliance. The desk treats these as partner-level facts, verified per program: the certificate document is collected, the scope read against what the facility actually does for your order, and the validity confirmed at order stage. Scheme-certified material is likewise sourced per order and confirmed in writing - it is not assumed across a supplier's whole range. For buyers answering their own customers' questionnaires, this layer is usually what the questionnaire is really asking about, and the Rainforest Alliance note covers how scheme sourcing works in practice.
The document pack, assembled per program
In practice a program's compliance file contains: facility licenses and registrations, the per-batch lab panel in your name, certificates of analysis scope agreed to your market, the organic or scheme certificate chain where the program claims it, and origin and packing records from the lot file. The desk assembles this per batch rather than per crisis, and states plainly which claims each document supports - so when your retailer, broker or auditor asks, the answer is a PDF, not a phone call. Label-side compliance - ingredients, nutrition, origin statement per destination - runs through the private label program, and market-side obligations remain with you as importer, which is why the desk flags them early rather than late. To have the right document scope scoped for your market before samples ship, list the destination and channel on the quote form and it will come back confirmed in writing.