Soil Association Certification (SA Cert) Certificate of Inspection Terms and Conditions

1.0 Service

SA Cert can endorse the Certificates of Inspection (CoI) product for its contracted organic clients as part of the requirement of the EU organic regulations (EC) 834/2007 & 889/2008, specifically EC/1235/2008 allowing SA Cert’s clients to submit the CoI request via the EU TRACES NT portal.

2.0 Eligibility

In order to be eligible to apply for an endorsed CoI through the TRACES NT Portal you must:

• hold a valid SA Cert Certificate for the requested organic products
• and have purchased the sufficient amount of CoIs for this process with SA Cert.

Failure to meet the eligibility criteria will mean the CoI cannot be endorsed.

3.0 Cost, refund and replacement

3.1 Cost

The cost of endorsing the CoI, as outlined in 1.0, is charged per certificate and listed on our website.

3.2 Refunds

If a CoI is purchased without meeting the eligibility criteria, as detailed in 2.0, a refund will not apply.

If after purchasing a CoI, and the CoI being endorsed by SA Certification staff,  the CoI is then no longer required by the Client a refund will not apply.

If a SA Cert client purchases an incorrect amount of CoIs, or, the CoI service is no longer required a refund may apply, please contact us within 28 days of purchase to discuss. If you are eligible for a refund, this will be made within 28 working days from the date of the request.

3.3 Replacements or changes

Should a CoI submitted via the TRACES NT portal require amending or replacing, no additional cost will apply unless the change exceeds three separate requests. Thereafter, this will be considered as a new certificate and a charge will apply.  Our standard delivery timescales, outlined in clause 4.1, apply after receipt of each amended submission.

4.0 Delivery

4.1 Standard Delivery

Providing the eligibility criteria outlined in section 2.0 has been met; all supporting documents and the correct CoI information has been uploaded, and the CoI request has been received by SA Cert for approval through the TRACES NT portal, standard electronic delivery of a CoI will take up to 3 working days from the date of purchase.

Please be advised that additional checks may be required if your consignment has a high-risk product or high-risk country identified in line with (EC) 1235/2008 which will increase turnaround time. The COI team will inform you via email if any additional documentation or photos of the consignment is required.

4.2 Working days and hours 

Our working hours are 8:00 am to 6pm Monday to Friday, excluding Public Holidays. 

Please send your CoI request to SA Cert via the TRACES NT portal at least 1 working day before the consignment leaves Great Britain. If this process is not respected, you expose yourself to the risk that your CoI cannot be verified and issued in time, and that either SA Cert. or the European authorities refuse to validate the CoI in TRACESNT for clearance of the batch as organic on the European market. 

In exceptional circumstance and by pre-arrangement only, we will operate a limited service at weekends to amend weights and transportation details to endorse the CoI.

For all other Terms and Conditions refer to client contract.

5.0 Currency

All fees and charges will be processed in UK pounds sterling, with VAT applied at the applicable rate.