Regulatory compliance
Find out what Brazil requires before the container ships.
Certification is set by the destination country, not by the factory. Entering Brazil can require INMETRO certification, ANATEL homologation or ANVISA registration. We map the requirement for your product and run the process, 19 years doing it, so the discovery does not happen at the port.
No cost, no commitment. A 20-minute call to scope the product and the destination.
Why this is the expensive one
What happens when certification is discovered at the port?
The cargo does not clear. It sits in a bonded warehouse accruing storage while the importer tries to obtain, retroactively, a certificate that was supposed to exist before shipment. Some certifications require testing in an accredited laboratory, and some require the product to be sampled from a production run, which means the container in the port cannot be the one that gets certified.\n\nIn the worst case the goods are returned or destroyed. In the ordinary case they clear months late, having cost more in storage than the margin on the order. Either way the supplier's name is attached to the episode, and there is no second order.
Which agency applies
Three agencies, three very different processes.
INMETRO
Safety and technical conformity
Electrical goods, toys, construction materials, personal protective equipment and a long list of other categories. Requires testing in an accredited laboratory and, for most categories, ongoing factory surveillance rather than a one-off certificate.
ANATEL
Anything that transmits
Any product with a radio transmitter: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular modules, remote controls. The homologation is per model, and a component change that seems trivial to engineering can invalidate it.
ANVISA
Health, food and cosmetics
Medical devices, cosmetics, food, supplements and related categories. The heaviest of the three in documentation, and the one where the Brazilian importer must hold a specific operating authorisation of its own.
How it works
Three steps, and the first one costs nothing.
- 1
Tell us the product
Technical description, materials, whether it plugs in, whether it transmits, whether it touches skin or food. Twenty minutes is usually enough to name the agency.
- 2
We map the requirement
NCM classification, the applicable regulation, whether testing is required and in which laboratory, and how long the process realistically takes.
- 3
We run the certification
Laboratory coordination, documentation, the certification body and the follow-up. In parallel with production, not after it.
Why start early
Certification is the item that sets the timeline.
Freight takes about a month and is predictable. Certification is not. A first INMETRO certification can take months, depending on the category and on laboratory availability. ANVISA registration for a medical device can take longer still.\n\nThat is why we start this process before the order is placed rather than alongside shipment. On a first import into Brazil, certification is almost always the critical path, and the only variable that cannot be compressed by paying more.
How do I know whether my product needs certification?
It depends on the NCM classification and on the product's characteristics, not on the category name. Two similar-looking items can fall under different rules because one has a radio module or a different power supply. We classify the item and check it against the applicable regulation before anything ships.
Can certification be obtained after the goods arrive?
Sometimes, at high cost, and sometimes not at all. Certifications that require sampling from a production run cannot be resolved with a container already sitting in a bonded warehouse. Meanwhile storage accrues daily. This is the single most expensive mistake in the process.
Who holds the certificate, us or the importer?
For INMETRO and ANATEL the certificate is generally held by the Brazilian importer or by a local representative, and it is tied to the product model rather than to a single shipment. That means it can serve future orders, which changes the economics of the first one.
Does certification need to be redone for each shipment?
No, but most INMETRO schemes include ongoing surveillance, and any change to the product, component or manufacturing site can require the certification to be revisited. We flag which changes matter before your engineering team makes them.
Related
Next step
Send us the product, we will tell you what Brazil requires.
A technical description is enough for a first assessment of which agency applies and what the process would look like.
No cost, no commitment. Twenty minutes.