Context: A revision to China’s farm-produce safety law in 2022 brought in a system of compliance certificates. Its aim was to close the gap between farms and markets and to pin responsibility on producers. After three years of trials, a new set of rules pulls together the patchwork of local practices. It spells out who must issue the certificates, how to do it and how to enforce the rules.
On December 2nd 2025, the agriculture minister, Han Jun 韩俊, signed a decree to bring in the Provisions on the Management of Certificates of Compliance for Agricultural Product Quality and Safety. The new rules take effect on February 1st 2026. Two departments within the ministry recently spoke about what they mean.
The certificate system marks a shift in how China keeps farm goods safe. The 2022 revision of the farm-produce safety law made it clear that growers, cooperatives and those who buy up farm goods must issue, collect and hold onto certificates of compliance. The new Provisions sit alongside that law. They set out what a certificate is, where it applies and how to issue, collect and store it.
The new rules have 22 articles. They cover four things. For now they apply to vegetables (including mushrooms), fruit, fresh tea leaves, live poultry, eggs and farmed fish. Growers and co-ops must issue certificates based on their own quality checks or test results. Buyers of farm goods must collect and keep those certificates; if they mix or repack what they buy, they must issue new ones. Smallholders are encouraged but not required to take part. Each certificate must list the promise, the grounds for it, the product’s name, quantity, origin, issue date, who issued it and contact details. The ministry will release a standard form later. Certificates may be digital, printed or handwritten. The rules spell out five ways someone can fail to issue, collect or store certificates as required. Local officials may then warn them, set a deadline to fix things or impose fines. Offences also go on credit records, bringing rewards for good behaviour or penalties for bad.
The rules split out responsibilities. Growers and cooperatives must issue certificates for each batch and keep records for at least six months. Those who buy farm goods, if they mix or repack what they have bought, must issue certificates based on their own quality checks or test results. Their records, too, must be kept for at least six months. For smallholders, the rules encourage but do not demand certificates. County-level agriculture departments may set up service points in villages to help smallholders with technical advice, quick tests and easy certificate-issuing.
As for storing certificates, those who buy farm goods and abattoirs must collect them and keep them for at least six months. They can do so by taking photos, keeping originals or copies, or saving screenshots of codes. For large volumes of packaged goods, they may pick a random sample from a batch to keep and record the total quantity bought.
To make the new rules work, the ministry will focus on three things. It will issue a standard template for the certificate, making sure it is practical, hard to forge and easy to scan. It will run training and outreach to explain the rules and encourage local governments to roll out user-friendly digital tools. And it will work more closely with market regulators, setting up ways to share information, talk through problems and carry out joint checks. The goal is to let certificates work alongside other tools such as traceability and credit ratings to build smarter oversight.