Seeds

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for the administration of the Seeds Act and Seed Regulations to help ensure that seeds sold in, imported into and exported from Canada meet established standards for quality and are labelled so that they are properly represented in the marketplace, and are registered prior to sale in Canada (most agricultural crop varieties).

The CFIA's seed section is the registrar for both variety registration and registered seed establishment programs.

Access CFIA's seed regulatory modernization to learn more about this initiative.

Available information

• ABCs of seed importation
• Shipping and exporting seeds from Canada
• Reporting and disposing of unsolicited seeds
• Pedigreed seed crop inspection procedures
• New description of variety form for oilseed soybean now available online
• Regulation of industrial hemp seed
• Regulation of cannabis seed
• Exports
• Imports
• Industry advisories
• Inspection procedures
  • CVB/CFIA roles and responsibilities with respect to the Seed Program
  • Official seed tags
  • Specific work instructions
• Seed testing/grading
  • Candidate's guide (seed grader)
  • Seed Laboratories
  • Weed Seeds Order
  • Weed seeds fact sheets
• Definitions, acronyms and references for the seed program
• Additional government and industry information
• CFIA statement on unrequested packages of seeds (Archived) 2020-07-28
• CFIA update on unrequested packages of seeds (Archived) 2020-08-06