What is certification?

If you are thinking about exporting your product or service to another country, you are probably thinking about certification. More and more markets and individual consumers see certification as a way of confirming that products and services:

• live up to their marketing claims
• meet specific safety, environmental and social requirements

Through certification you demonstrate to your purchasers that your product or service meets these requirements. You could find that certification helps to ease you into your key export markets and it could also give buyers a reason to do business with you rather than another company.

So what does certification mean? Becoming certified is a voluntary process, unlike regulation, which is a set of rules that you must follow. When you are certified, it tells your customers that a qualified or independent person has assessed your product, process or service and guaranteed in writing that it meets specific standards or requirements.

There are positive benefits to be being certified, and it's not difficult to do. To be certified, your business will need to go through a assessment process which focuses on one or more of these main elements:

Processes
Products
People