Who Handles a Thai Food Import, and Who Holds the Permit

Two things about Thailand surprise Canadian exporters. The authority that inspects your consignment at the border is often not the one that registered your product. And Canada does not hold the equivalence recognition that would let Canadian inspection results stand in for Thai ones.

Both are matters of record, and both are read below from the Thai and Canadian sources named at the foot of this page rather than from the Thai FDA, whose site answers an 'Access Violation' interstitial to requests from our network.

Start here: market access is not open for beef and pork

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's export requirements page for Thailand, last modified on 16 January 2026, opens with a plain statement: Canada does not currently have market access for beef and pork to Thailand.

The same page then sets out eligible products and detailed conditions, which is not a contradiction so much as a framework held in suspense. If you are planning a Thai meat programme, that note is the first thing to resolve with your CFIA area office, because no amount of commercial preparation moves it.

Import inspection has moved away from the FDA

Under the Food Act, responsibility for inspecting imported food was transferred from the Thai Food and Drug Administration to agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. The transfer is recorded in two Thai FDA notifications, the first dated 29 April 2016 and a second dated 23 March 2023, and a Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives order of 27 April 2023 appointing a committee to review how the transfer has worked.

The transfer is organised by commodity, covering plant products, fishery products and livestock products, with named coordinating units for each.

The practical consequence is that a Thai food filing and a Thai border inspection are handled by different parts of government. An exporter who has dealt only with the registration side can be surprised by which agency stops a container, and a Thai importer who is fluent in one is not necessarily fluent in the other. Ask your importer which agency handles your commodity before the first shipment, not during it.

Canada is not on the equivalence list

Thailand maintains a register of foreign agencies whose standards are recognised as equivalent and whose inspection results it accepts. As it stands, that register contains a single entry: the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority of India, recognised against one Thai agricultural standard.

Canada is not on it. That is not a judgement about Canadian food safety; the list is short for everybody. But it means you cannot plan on Canadian inspection results being accepted in place of Thai ones, and you should assume your consignment is inspected on arrival on Thailand's own terms.

What that looks like on arrival

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's page shows what Thai inspection means in practice for the one product line it details. Boneless beef is subject to inspection and detention for laboratory testing on arrival, and the owner or importer is fully charged for the cost. Failure to follow the import procedures may result in the meat being returned to Canada or destroyed, without compensation.

Read that clause carefully before agreeing Incoterms. Testing costs and the risk of destruction without compensation are commercial exposures that need an owner in the contract.

For pork, the same page puts the obligation on the trade parties to ensure import conditions are met to the satisfaction of the importing country, giving an import permit as the example. The permit is the Thai importer's to obtain, and a Canadian exporter cannot hold it.

What to settle before you ship

Confirm the market access position for your product with your CFIA export specialist first. Establish which Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives agency inspects your commodity and whether your importer has dealt with it. Agree in writing who pays for testing on arrival and who carries the loss if a consignment is refused. And do not assume a Canadian certificate substitutes for Thai inspection, because on the current register it does not.