Phytosanitary Certificates and Food Control
The Kosovo Food and Veterinary Agency (KFVA) is the highest authority for food and veterinary and is responsible for protecting lives and health of people by providing a high level of food safety, including animal nutrition, animal health, caring for animals as well as the quality of food of plant and animal origin.
The Government of Kosovo has appointed the FVA as the national authority to implement the Government’s applicable policies. In this respect, the FVA carries out inspections in the field of food safety, hygiene, traceability, and labeling of food for human beings and animal feed in the area of processing, packaging, distribution, wholesale and retail space according to national legislation which is harmonized with EU legislation. The objective and the activity of the FVA is to implement veterinary control at the border checkpoints to ensure that imported and exported consignments that are under veterinary control meet the necessary safety, animal registration and identification, and quality requirements.
The FVA is responsible for issuing the phytosanitary certificate of the goods exported from Kosovo. The process of the phytosanitary certificate is triggered by the exporter either in written form or by a phone call. The exporter should be a registered business, with its tax (registration) number, issued by Ministry of Trade and Industry, specifically the Kosovo Business Registration Agency (KBRA) with the appropriate activity code. Once the exporter fulfills this condition, the FVA inspector of the region where the exporter operates inspects the premises of exporter and takes samples of the goods which is subject for export for further analyses. The taken sample is analyzed only by the accredited laboratory. Usually, the analyses are conducted by the accredited laboratory of Kosovo Agriculture Institute in Peja. After receiving the results of analyses and given that they are within the standard values the FVA has issued for the phytosanitary certificate (which is usually valid for the tested crop(s)), the certificate is valid for a period of up to 15 days. Each truck/container load is followed by the invoice and the phytosanitary certificate. The phytosanitary certificate cannot be used for more than one truck/container load. On the other hand, the analyses of the crop are valid for 30 days, meaning that it can be used for issuing another phytosanitary certificate of the same crop and same lot.