Import of hay, straw and silage

Published

12.12.2023

Import of hay, straw and silage from the EU and EEA-area

You, as an importer, are responsible for ensuring that the feed is safe. You must follow the regulations that apply to safe feed. The feed should not present a health hazard to humans or animals, and should not make food from food-producing animals hazardous or unsuitable as food. The feed should also not spread plant pests or unwanted plants. It should be noted that it is not allowed to import seeds of wild oat (Avena fatua) or products containing wild oat. Furthermore is it to this date not allowed to import genetically modified feeds.

You need to make sure that the feed comes from regions that do not have any restriction because of the animal health situation. It is a high risk to import hay and straw from countries where the African swine fever virus occurs.

Risk-reducing measures

Additionally we suggest these risk-reducing measures for the import of feed:

• Import from areas with low ruminant population
• Import from areas where the feed to be imported has been produced without animal manure during the last two years
• Import from areas that can document low prevalence or no prevalence of contagious threats evaluated in the risk analysis
• Import from farms that practice high stubbing during harvesting
• Sorting of fodder which is of poor quality or contaminated with soil and other organic matter than hay, straw and silage
• Importing fodder which is ensilaged

You must be registered

You must be registered at the Norwegian Food Safety Authority so that we can control your compliance with the rules. Once you are registered, users of the feed (farmers and horse teams) can purchase feed from you. Remember also that you only can trade feed from feed businesses that are registered in the member state of origin.

You can find the relevant forms via our list of form: Skjemaer (Norwegian)

Feed business

To register as a feed business, use the form " Ny fôrvarevirksomhet” (New feed business) . Select the "Fôrvarer – omsetning” (Feed – Sales) activity, or "Fôrvarer – transport” (Feed – Transport) activity if you want to register transport. Here you must declare that you have understood the requirements of the regulations and that you follow them.

Importer

To register as an importer, use the form "New Importer". Select the item group "12.14.9091" for import of hay, "12.13.0001" for straw, or "12.14.9099" for silage-based fodder forage. There is normally duty on "12.14.9099", however it is possible to obtain duty free import of silage-based fodder by contacting the Norwegian Agricultural Directorate.

The first recipient also need to register as «første mottaker» (first recipient).

Plant health and alien species

Plant health and invasive alien species are areas not covered by the EEA-regulation.

Importers of hay/straw product(s) have to declare that the hay/straw product(s) does (do) not contain seeds from wild oats (Avena fatua) with germination ability. There no special form for this declaration.

The feed and the packaging should be free from soil.

The importer also have duty of care when it comes to preventing introduction and spread of alien species. For questions contact The Norwegian Environment Agency (environmentagency.no)

GMO

Feed produced from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not permitted in Norway without the approval of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. No genetically modified feed products are approved in Norway by July 2018.

Import of hay and straw from countries outside the EU/EEA-area

If you want to import hay and straw directly to Norway from countries outside EU and the EEA-area, you should be aware that these products must come from approved and listed countries.

These requirements are adopted for animal health reasons.

The listed countries are:

• Australia
• Canada
• Switzerland
• Chile Greenland
• Guernsey Iceland
• Isle of Man
• Jersey
• New Zealand
• Serbia
• United Kingdom (Great Britain)
• USA (United States of America)

Approved and listed veterinary border inspection post

You must import the goods via an approved and listed veterinary border inspection post. The import must be prenotified in TRACES (europa.eu)before the consignment arrives in Norway and the consignment must be accompanied by a health certificate issued and signed by an official veterinarian in the exporting country.

There must be payed a fee for the control.

Plant health and genetically modified feed

Imported feed must meet plant health requirements and should not spread plant pests or unwanted plants. It should be noted that it is not allowed to import seeds of wild oat (Avena fatua) or products containing wild oat.

It should also be noted that to this date genetically modified feed is not allowed to import into Norway.

Register as an importer

Before you can import hay and straw to Norway you will also have to register yourself as an importer at the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet). You can find the formulas via our list of form: Skjemaer (Norwegian)

The country of export make their own certificate

There is no harmonized certificate for import of hay and straw to Norway. It is therefore up to the country of export to make their own certificate. But, for import to Norway, the following health guaranties have to be fulfilled in such a certificate:

When importing feed from countries that cultivate genetically modified plants, the importer is obliged to present documentation for that particular consignment showing that the feed is not genetically modified. 

After control and if approved at the veterinary border inspection post, the consignment can be declared to customs.

Five veterinary Border Inspection Posts (BIPs)

Norway has five veterinary Border Inspection Posts (BIPs) where you can import hay and straw: BIP Borg Port, BIP Oslo Port, BIP Aalesund port, BIP Måløy Port and BIP Egersund Port.

You can read more about veterinary border control and the system of importing hay and straw from countries outside the EU/EEA-area on these websites:

• Veterinary border control (europa.eu)
• Norwegian border inspection posts (PDF) In this PDF, you will also find contact details for the Norwegian BIPs.