AMS released the following notice on August 13, 2021, which confirms the information USDEC provided in previous Member Alerts and reaffirms USDEC's efforts regarding the EU's new Dairy Export Verification Program. As reflected below, the situation remains as USDEC has reported over the past two weeks: 1) the U.S. government will be able to issue the new EU certificates without imposing burdensome new requirements on U.S. dairy farmers or manufacturers; and 2) the long-standing U.S. request for more transition time has been granted by the EU, shifting the implementation date for the new certificates to Jan. 15, 2022.

Please be advised that the EU will be permitting the use of all current dairy and composite certificates through March 15, 2022, so long as they were issued prior to January 15, 2022.

As of January 15, 2022, the European Union (EU) will require new health certificates for U.S. dairy products exported to the EU. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will be prepared to issue these new health certificates.

AMS is amending the existing EU Dairy Export Verification Program to verify that the U.S. milk used for products exported to the EU is sourced from establishments regulated under the Grade "A" Pasteurized Milk Ordinance or the USDA AMS Milk for Manufacturing Purposes and its Production and Processing Recommended Requirements program. Entities throughout the supply chain are expected to maintain records to demonstrate that milk used for export to the EU was sourced from one of these programs.

Based on verbal and written technical exchanges with the EU Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, participation in these programs combined with the oversight provided by the Food and Drug Administration and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is sufficient for AMS to endorse the attestations on the new certificates established in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2235.

To minimize the impact on the U.S. dairy industry, AMS will implement slight changes to its current program to check existing records at milk processing plants or dairy cooperative milk suppliers. AMS will verify milk sources when conducting regular audits for compliance with the existing EU Somatic Cell Count (SCC) and Bacteria Standard Plate Count (SPC) requirements. AMS expects that this review will add minimal time to our routine audits. Entities that fail to maintain such records will be expected to take corrective actions and will be subject to further review.

In addition to slight modifications to the EU Dairy Export Verification Program, AMS is preparing to issue new EU export certificates in its Agriculture Trade Licensing & Attestation Solution (ATLAS) system. Additional details and instructions on these new EU certificates are under development and will be made available on the AMS website.

Please contact Bryan Jacoby at bjacoby@usdec.org with any technical questions on the EU certificates and refer to Volume 2 of the USDEC Export Guide for additional details.