What is APEDA registration?
APEDA is the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, set up under the APEDA Act, 1985 to develop and promote the export of scheduled products.
Registration with APEDA gives you a registration-cum-membership certificate for the scheduled products you export. Practically, it is the document that tells DGFT, a bank, a buyer or a scheme administrator that you are a registered exporter of that product group.
It is not a food safety approval and not a permission to export. The food law side is FSSAI, and the permission to export at all is your Import Export Code.
What an RCMC is, and why the Foreign Trade Policy asks for one
An RCMC is a certificate issued by an export promotion council or a commodity board registering you as an exporter of the product group it looks after.
The Foreign Trade Policy 2023 makes this concrete. Under paragraph 2.57, anyone applying for an authorisation to import or export under the policy, or for any other benefit or concession under it, must provide the RCMC. Paragraph 2.56 makes the export promotion councils the registering authorities, each handling a particular group of products, projects or services as set out in Appendix 2T.
So the question is never whether you need "an APEDA certificate". It is which council or board is the registering authority for what you export, and whether you need any Foreign Trade Policy benefit at all.
Which products come under APEDA
APEDA's scheduled products cover most of agriculture and processed food. The groups it names are:
| Product group |
|---|
| Fruits, vegetables and their products |
| Meat and meat products |
| Poultry and poultry products |
| Dairy products |
| Confectionery, biscuits and bakery products |
| Honey, jaggery and sugar products |
| Cocoa and its products, chocolates |
| Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages |
| Cereal and cereal products |
| Groundnuts, peanuts and walnuts |
| Pickles, papads and chutneys |
| Guar gum |
| Floriculture and floriculture products |
| Herbal and medicinal plants |
| De-oiled rice bran |
| Green pepper in brine |
| Cashew nuts and its products |
Two points worth knowing. Basmati rice has been included in the Second Schedule of the APEDA Act, so rice exporters deal with APEDA. And organic products exported as organic have to comply with the National Programme for Organic Production, which is a separate certification track from the RCMC itself.
If your product is not on APEDA's list
Then APEDA is not your registering authority, and an application to APEDA is a wasted fee.
Appendix 2T of the Foreign Trade Policy sets out which council or board registers which product group. Two of them issue certificates that the policy treats as an RCMC in their own right: the Certificate of Registration as Exporter of Spices issued by the Spices Board, and the Certificate of Registration as Exporter of Coir and Coir products issued by the Coir Board.
Send us your product description and, if you have it, the HS code. Getting this right on day one is the cheapest advice on this page.
Documents required
APEDA asks for different proof depending on whether you only trade or also manufacture.
Merchant exporter
- Import Export Code issued by DGFT, signed and sealed
Manufacturer or manufacturer-cum-merchant exporter
The IEC, plus proof of manufacturing for your product category. APEDA specifies which document it will accept for each group:
| Product category | Manufacturing proof |
|---|---|
| Floriculture and seeds | Certificate from the Department of Horticulture |
| Fresh fruits and vegetables | FSSAI licence, Udyam registration, or a Horticulture Department certificate |
| Groundnut, pulses and guar gum | FSSAI licence or Udyam registration |
| Processed foods, meat, dairy, poultry and honey | FSSAI licence or Udyam registration |
| Alcoholic beverages | Certificate from the Department of the Excise Commissioner |
| Cereals | FSSAI licence or Udyam registration |
Alongside these, keep the usual entity set ready: PAN, the bank account details for the entity, and your constitution document. If you do not yet hold the prerequisites, we file them first: IEC registration at ₹999 plus the ₹500 DGFT fee, FSSAI registration from ₹1,999, and Udyam registration, which is free of government fee.
APEDA registration fees
Professional fee: fee on quote after a free review. The review is mostly classification: confirming that APEDA is the right authority for your product, and which manufacturing proof your category needs. We quote once that is settled.
Government fee: ₹5,900, being a registration fee of ₹5,000 plus GST at 18% of ₹900, for a certificate valid for five years. Renewal for the next five years is at the same ₹5,900. Amendments or modifications to the RCMC after issue carry no fee.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| APEDA registration fee | ₹5,000 |
| GST at 18% on the registration fee | ₹900 |
| Total payable to APEDA | ₹5,900 |
| Validity | Five years |
| Renewal for the next five years | ₹5,900 |
| Amendment or modification after issue | No fee |
Professional fees exclude GST at 18%. Government fees, where they apply, are paid at actuals to the department and are shown separately. Fees verified on 27 September 2026.
How the e-RCMC application runs
The application is made through the e-RCMC module on the DGFT portal, not on APEDA's own website. That single fact saves most first-time applicants a day of searching.
- Get the IEC first. APEDA's own guidance is that you apply for the e-RCMC after obtaining the IEC from DGFT. See IEC registration.
- Classify the product. Confirm that your product is in APEDA's schedule, and which manufacturing proof applies if you manufacture.
- Open the e-RCMC application on the DGFT portal and select APEDA as the registering authority.
- Enter the entity details exactly as they appear on the IEC and the PAN, including the branches or units you export from.
- Upload the documents: the signed and sealed IEC, and your manufacturing proof where applicable.
- Pay ₹5,900 and sign the application with a digital signature certificate or Aadhaar e-sign, in the same way as any DGFT filing. If you need a certificate, see digital signature.
- Collect the RCMC once APEDA has processed the application, and keep the PDF with your export documents.
Validity, renewal and amendments
The RCMC is valid for five years, and renewal for the next five years costs the same ₹5,900. That is a rare thing in Indian compliance: a certificate with a long life and a flat renewal price.
Amendments and modifications after issue are free. So if you add a product in the same schedule, change your address or change your bank details, update the RCMC rather than leaving it stale. A certificate that does not match your current details is worth very little to a bank or a buyer.
Two habits are worth building. Diarise the five-year date the day the certificate arrives, because nothing will remind you. And update the RCMC in the same week you update the IEC, since the two documents are read together.
What else a food or agri exporter needs
The RCMC sits inside a stack. For a typical food exporter, the full set looks like this:
| Item | Why |
|---|---|
| Import Export Code | Permission to export goods. ₹500 DGFT fee, annual update between April and June |
| APEDA RCMC | Registration as an exporter of a scheduled product, needed for Foreign Trade Policy authorisations and benefits |
| FSSAI licence | Food law compliance. A manufacturer-exporter and a 100 per cent export oriented unit are under Central licensing: see FSSAI Central licence |
| AD code registration | Links your bank account to customs so the shipping bill goes through |
| LUT in RFD-11 | Exporting without paying IGST, filed once each financial year |
| GST refund | Recovering IGST paid on exports, or input credit accumulated under an LUT |
We can sequence all of these so the entity name, address and PAN match across every registration, which is the thing that goes wrong when they are done by different people at different times.
Common reasons an APEDA application is delayed
- Wrong registering authority. The product belongs to another council or board, and the application has to start again.
- IEC not obtained first, or an IEC whose details do not match the application.
- Manufacturing proof missing where the applicant has described itself as a manufacturer-exporter.
- A proof document that is not the one APEDA accepts for that product category, for example an Udyam certificate where a Horticulture Department certificate is expected.
- Entity name or address mismatch between the IEC, the PAN and the application.
- Signing problems on the DGFT portal: an expired digital signature certificate, or Aadhaar not linked to a mobile number.
Why Regikart for APEDA registration
Regikart is a CA and CS firm serving 250+ clients from offices in Kolkata (head office), Delhi and Bengaluru, working with clients across India online.
- Classification first. We check which council or board is your registering authority before you pay a fee to the wrong one.
- The whole export file. IEC, FSSAI, LUT, GST refunds and the digital signature that signs the DGFT filings, from one team.
- Published government fee. ₹5,900 including GST, five years, with the fee-free amendment position stated plainly, so nothing about the cost is a surprise.
- Renewal diarised. A five-year certificate is the easiest one in the country to forget.