What actually travels with a container of nuts
A container of almonds is worth what its documents say it is. Most of those documents are not issued by the company that sold you the nuts — they are issued by a laboratory, a government inspector, a chamber of commerce, a carrier or a certification body. Knowing who issues each one tells you who to chase when a piece is missing.
Last verified: 20 September 2026 — requirements vary by destination and change. Confirm with your importer of record and your customs broker for your market.
The rule that makes the rest of this make sense
Exporters do not issue most export documents. They assemble them. The commercial invoice, packing list and sales contract come from the seller; nearly everything else is produced by a third party who has inspected, tested, carried, treated or certified something, and whose independence is the entire point of the document.
That has a practical consequence for buyers: when a document is late, asking the exporter to "just send it" often cannot work, because the exporter does not hold the pen. Ask instead who issues it and what is it waiting on.
The core set — on almost every ocean shipment
| Document | Who issues it | What it proves | Common failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial invoice | The seller | Parties, goods, quantity, unit price, currency, incoterm and named place, payment terms, HS code, country of origin | An incoterm with no named place ("CIF" alone means nothing), or an HS code that does not match the goods description |
| Packing list | The seller, from the packing facility's data | Carton and pallet counts, net and gross weights, lot or batch numbers, marks | Lot numbers that do not match the certificate of analysis — a routine cause of detention |
| Bill of lading (or sea waybill) | The ocean carrier or the NVOCC | Contract of carriage and, for a negotiable B/L, title to the goods | Originals couriered to the wrong party under a letter of credit; discrepancies against the LC wording |
| Certificate of analysis | The testing laboratory | Lot-specific results — aflatoxin, moisture, microbiological parameters, grade and defect figures as agreed | A "typical analysis" supplied in place of a lot-specific certificate. They are not the same document |
| Phytosanitary certificate | USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine, or an authorised state or county official acting as a certifying official | That the consignment was inspected and meets the importing country's plant-health requirements | Applied for too late. Applications go through the APHIS Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance and Tracking system (PCIT), and inspection has to physically happen |
| Certificate of origin | A chamber of commerce, for a non-preferential certificate. For a trade-agreement claim, the exporter, producer or importer certifies directly | Where the goods originate, for duty and for import licensing | Assuming a chamber certificate serves a free-trade-agreement claim. Under USMCA there is no prescribed form — any format works provided it carries the nine minimum data elements in Annex 5-A |
| ISPM 15 mark | The accredited heat-treatment or fumigation provider, stamped on the wood itself | That wooden pallets and dunnage were treated against pests | Treating this as a certificate. It is a mark on the pallet. Plastic or pressed-wood pallets sidestep the issue entirely |
| Electronic Export Information (EEI) in AES | The US Principal Party in Interest, or its authorised forwarding agent | The US export declaration | Assuming it is optional. Under 15 CFR 30.37(a) the low-value exemption applies per Schedule B number at $2,500 or less — a container of nuts is far above it. Shipments to Canada are separately exempt under 15 CFR 30.36 |
The conditional set — issued when a market or a contract calls for it
| Document | Who issues it | When you need it |
|---|---|---|
| Halal certificate | A recognised halal certification body, in the name of the facility that processed and packed the lot | Most GCC and Southeast Asian markets, for products where the market requires it. Ask specifically whether the certificate covers the seasonings and not only the nuts |
| Kosher certificate | A kosher certifying agency, in the packing facility's name | Israel, and buyers serving kosher retail anywhere |
| Fumigation certificate | The licensed fumigation company | Where the destination requires treatment of the cargo or of the packaging |
| Certificate to a Foreign Government / Certificate of Exportability | US FDA, via the CFSAN Export Certification Application and Tracking System (eCATS) | Where a foreign authority asks for US government confirmation that the product may be legally marketed in, or exported from, the United States. FDA charges per certificate — the published schedule at launch was $175 for the first, $155 for a second on the same request and $100 for each subsequent one; confirm the current fee in eCATS |
| Certificate of free sale (state) | A state department of agriculture, in some states | Some markets accept a state-issued certificate where FDA's is not the required form. Ask the importer which they need before applying for either |
| Health certificate | Varies by destination — a competent authority, an accredited laboratory, or a state agency | Named by the importing market. There is no universal US "health certificate" for food |
| Insurance certificate | The insurer or the broker | Mandatory under CIF and CIP, where the seller contracts the insurance. Under FOB the buyer insures and no certificate travels from the seller |
| Weight or quality inspection certificate | An independent surveyor (SGS, Intertek, Bureau Veritas and similar) | When the buyer wants third-party confirmation at loading, or when a letter of credit calls for it. Normally at the buyer's cost and the buyer's nomination |
| Legalisation / consular attestation | A chamber of commerce and then the destination country's consulate | A handful of markets still require it on the invoice and certificate of origin. Slow, and it must be budgeted into the timeline, not discovered in it |
| Import permit, product registration, label registration | The destination authority — obtained by the importer, not the exporter | GCC label and product registration, FSSAI requirements in India, and equivalents elsewhere. The exporter supplies the file the importer files with |
The division of labour nobody writes down
As a rough rule: the exporter owns everything that describes the goods and the shipment — invoice, packing list, analysis, phytosanitary, origin, carriage. The importer owns everything that describes the importer's right to sell them in that market — import permits, product and label registration, local licences, and the customs entry itself.
Disputes on a first shipment almost always sit on that boundary. Settling it in the sales contract — in one paragraph, naming who obtains what — prevents more trouble than any other clause in the document.
Who pays, and when the risk moves
The incoterm decides who pays for the documents and where the goods stop being the seller's problem. Three matter for nuts:
- EXW — the buyer arranges everything from the packer's door. The seller provides the commercial documents and little else. Cheapest headline number, most work for the buyer, and a poor fit for a first-time importer.
- FOB (named port of loading) — the seller delivers on board at, for example, Los Angeles or Long Beach, and pays for the export documents to that point. The buyer books and pays the ocean freight and insures the cargo.
- CIF (named port of destination) — the seller contracts and pays the ocean freight and the minimum insurance, and supplies the insurance certificate. Duty, VAT, destination terminal handling and clearance are still for the buyer's account. A CIF price is not a landed price, and a CIF quotation without a validity date is not a quotation.
The lot number is the thread that runs through everything
If you take one operational habit from this page, take this one: check that the lot or batch number appears identically on the packing list, the certificate of analysis and any market-specific certificate before the container sails.
Some protocols make it explicit. Japan's arrangement for US almonds — which since 1 April 2025 exempts protocol-compliant shipments from mandatory arrival testing — requires a certificate of analysis with consistent documentation across all trade paperwork. But even where nothing says it in writing, a mismatched lot number is the single most common reason a technically compliant container gets held while somebody in another time zone is asked to explain it.
What this looks like in practice
California Premium Nuts owns no facility and holds no facility certification. Product is sourced, processed and packed at licensed California handler and co-packer facilities, and every certificate above is issued by the party that inspected, tested, treated or carried the goods — in that party's name, for that lot. What CPN does is assemble the set, check it against the market's requirements before the lot is booked, and stay on the file until it clears customs at the destination.
That is a smaller claim than most export websites make, and it is the accurate one. Ask any supplier to tell you, document by document, who issues each piece. The answer is a fast and reliable test of whether they have shipped before.
Sources
- USDA APHIS, Plant and Plant Product Export Certificates — federal, state or county certifying officials, the PCIT system, and user fees that vary by issuing authority. aphis.usda.gov · PCIT sign-in
- 15 CFR Part 30 Subpart D, §30.37(a) — the $2,500 low-value exemption applied per Schedule B number; §30.36 — the Canada exemption. ecfr.gov
- US Customs and Border Protection, USMCA — "Any format is acceptable, provided it contains nine (9) minimum data elements set out in the USMCA, Annex 5-A." cbp.gov
- US FDA, FDA Issues New Export Certificates for Certain Foods — Certificate to a Foreign Government and Certificate of Exportability, requested through CFSAN eCATS, with the published fee schedule. fda.gov
- Japan's 1 April 2025 protocol for US almonds, jointly administered by USDA AMS and the Almond Board of California, including the requirement for consistent documentation across all trade paperwork. FreshPlaza report
More from this series
Ask for the document list with the quote.
California Premium Nuts sends the full document set that will travel with your lot alongside the written quotation, so you can check it against your market's requirements before anything is booked.