The purpose of this report is to assess the market opportunities for producers and exporters in developing countries who are interested in exporting certified foods to North America. For the development-related purposes of this report, North American will signify Canada and the United States and shall exclude Mexico. The US and Canadian economies have been closely tied for decades and cross-border trade in agricultural products is likely to continue growing. They share very similar market characteristics such as retail formats, regulations, standards and distribution channels and the flow of products between them is considerable. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has fostered greater economic integration. Population growth and sustained economic expansion have created greater demand and encouraged new economic arrangements in agricultural trade between these two countries.

The study focuses on a few environmental and social certification programmes that use a registered on-product label targeting consumers. Special emphasis is put on organic and fair-trade certified agricultural products due to their importance in the North American market relative to other forms of social or environmental certification, their potential for value adding and their strong and sustained growth. Other certification schemes have been included because of their importance for certain tropical products imported into North America. For example, a substantial portion of banana imports are Rainforest Alliance (RA) certified and a number of certification initiatives thrive in the American coffee industry.