Mexico pet food zoosanitary certificates changing June 2026 (CFIA / AIRS update)

What changed

CFIA wrapped negotiations with SENASICA (Mexico’s ag authority) on new zoosanitary certificate statements for pet food products coming north. The updated language goes live in the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) on June 22, 2026. Two-month transition window runs through August 22, 2026. After that, the old certificates stop working.

Two certificates now, not one. Kibble, canned food, pet treats, jerky, and compound pet chews fall under one statement. Simple pet chews (single-ingredient rawhide, bully sticks, pig ears) get a separate certificate. If your Mexican supplier ships a mixed pallet, you’ll need both forms on file before the shipment crosses.

Why this matters if you’re filing CADs on Mexican pet food

CFIA holds are expensive. If the certificate language doesn’t match what AIRS expects after August 22, the shipment sits at the border until the paperwork is corrected. That usually means your Mexican shipper requests a replacement certificate from SENASICA, which can take three to ten business days depending on how fast the plant’s local office moves. Your drayage clock is running, your customer’s retail pack-out date slips, and you’re paying daily storage at the Montreal sufferance warehouse or wherever the freight landed.

Most CFIA certificate updates are administrative housekeeping. This one splits a single certificate into two, which means your supplier’s export compliance team needs to understand which SKU maps to which form. If they ship ten SKUs and seven are compound chews but three are simple single-ingredient chews, they need to pull the right certificate template for each line. That’s a training problem on the Mexican export side, and it won’t surface until the first post-August shipment hits Lacolle or Pacific Highway.

What to do between now and June

Send the AIRS notice to your Mexican suppliers now. Not in May 2026. Now. SENASICA will issue the updated certificate templates to registered Mexican plants sometime in Q2 2026, but the plants need to know the change is coming so they can update their internal export SOPs. If your supplier first hears about this from a CBSA officer in August, you own the delay.

If you’re working with a customs broker who doesn’t track AIRS updates, this is a test case. CFIA publishes these notices months in advance specifically so importers and foreign shippers have time to align. A broker who flags this in your Q2 2026 planning call is doing the job. A broker who mentions it for the first time when your shipment is on hold in week three of August is not.

Check your current certificate inventory. If you’re importing pet food from Mexico today, pull the zoosanitary certificates your supplier sent with the last three shipments. Confirm they’re coming from a SENASICA-registered plant (the establishment number should appear on the certificate). If the certificates are inconsistent or missing establishment numbers, that’s a separate problem that will get worse under the new regime.

Transition period mechanics (June 22 to August 22, 2026)

During the two-month window, CFIA will accept either the old certificate format or the new format. That’s standard for AIRS updates. The idea is to give Mexican plants time to burn through old certificate stock and adopt the new templates without creating a hard cutover cliff.

In practice, expect confusion. Some plants will switch to the new certificates immediately. Others will keep using the old forms until mid-August. If you’re consolidating loads from multiple Mexican suppliers, you may see a mix of old and new certificates on the same manifest. CFIA officers at the border will accept both during transition, but your compliance documentation needs to be clean enough that the officer can tell which certificate applies to which line item. If the commercial invoice lists fifteen SKUs and the certificates don’t map cleanly to HS codes and product descriptions, you’re giving the officer a reason to hold the shipment for further review.

Run a trial shipment in July 2026 if your volumes justify it. If you’re moving twenty containers a month of Mexican pet food, use one July shipment as a test case with the new certificate format. That gives you four weeks of buffer before the August 22 cutover to fix any format issues or supplier misunderstandings.

What happens if the certificate is wrong after August 22

CFIA will refuse entry until the certificate is corrected. The shipment can sit in sufferance or return to Mexico. Correction usually requires the Mexican plant to request a new certificate from SENASICA with the updated language, then courier or email the corrected document to the Canadian importer, who forwards it to the broker, who submits it to CFIA. That process takes a minimum of three business days if everyone moves fast. Realistically, budget a week.

If the goods are temperature-sensitive (some jerky products, certain fresh chews), a week of delay can turn a CFIA documentation hold into a total loss. We’ve seen that scenario play out with other OGD holds where the correction timeline outlasts the product’s shelf stability. Pet food is generally more forgiving than fresh produce, but it’s not infinite. If your supplier ships in reefer containers and the product spec calls for refrigeration during transport, a seven-day hold at ambient warehouse temperature may trigger a customer rejection even after CFIA clears the shipment.

HS classification and duty relief angles

Most pet food from Mexico enters Canada under HS 2309 (preparations of a kind used in animal feeding). Duty treatment varies depending on whether the product qualifies for CUSMA origin. If your Mexican supplier is using U.S. ingredients and the regional value content calculation is close, this certificate change is a good time to re-verify your CUSMA claim. CFIA documentation mistakes tend to trigger parallel CBSA reviews of origin and valuation, especially if the shipment is held long enough that a compliance officer gets involved.

If you’re claiming CUSMA preference and the product contains meat or meat by-products, confirm the meat originated in Canada, the U.S., or Mexico. Third-country meat (Chinese chicken meal, European pork protein) disqualifies the finished good from CUSMA even if final processing happened in Mexico. The CFIA certificate won’t tell you that, but the CBSA origin verification will, and it’s cheaper to scrub your CUSMA claims now than to argue a post-release adjustment six months from now.

Broker and supplier communication checklist

Forward the AIRS notice to every Mexican pet food supplier you work with. Include your internal product code and HS code so they can map the new certificate requirements to the specific SKUs you buy. Ask them to confirm in writing which certificate (compound or simple) applies to each product line. If they’re not sure, ask them to check with SENASICA before June.

If you’re using a freight forwarder to arrange Mexico-Canada transport, make sure they’re aware of the certificate split. Forwarders don’t usually review zoosanitary certificates, but they do coordinate document handoff to the broker. If the forwarder sends the wrong certificate to the broker because the shipper attached the wrong PDF to the booking, that’s a delay that could have been caught in the pre-shipment document review.

Set a calendar reminder for June 1, 2026, to review the final AIRS publication. CFIA may issue additional clarifications or examples between now and go-live. The two-certificate split is final, but the exact wording and acceptable variations sometimes shift in the last weeks before publication.

If you’re importing pet food from Mexico and this is the first you’re hearing about the June certificate change, that’s a gap worth closing. We track AIRS updates as part of the standard brokerage service because these notices don’t come with flashing lights, but they do come with expensive holds if you miss them. Get in touch if you want someone else watching the feed.

Source: CSCB