Exporters who have built a dried fruit business in Europe often approach Japan and South Korea as further destinations for the same product. It is a reasonable assumption and it is frequently wrong, for a specific and avoidable reason: the additive rules in these markets are not a variation on the European ones. In at least one important respect they are stricter by a wide margin, and the gap is large enough that a perfectly lawful European product can be inadmissible.
The number that catches European suppliers out
Japan sets a residual limit for sulphites in dried fruit, excluding raisins, of 0.35 g/kg — 350 mg/kg — expressed as sulphur dioxide. Set that against the EU, where light-coloured dried fruit such as apricots and white grapes currently sits at a maximum of 2,000 mg/kg.
The consequence is direct. A sulphured dried apricot produced to the middle of the European range is not a marginal case in Japan; it is several times over the limit. This is not a matter of a stricter inspector or a difficult customs officer. It is a different permitted level, and no amount of documentation makes a product compliant with a limit it exceeds.
It follows that the additive question is the first question in these markets, not a specification detail to settle later. A supplier who opens a Japanese conversation without knowing the sulphite level of their own product is not in a position to answer the only thing that matters yet.
How a Japanese import actually proceeds
Importers submit a notification form for importation of foods to the Food Sanitation Inspection Section at a quarantine station of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Consignments selected for examination are inspected at a designated bonded warehouse, where officials take samples for laboratory analysis, and entry is permitted once the quarantine station confirms compliance.
Two practical points follow for a supplier. The first is that pre-shipment analysis needs to cover what will actually be tested, which means the conversation about analytical scope belongs with the importer before the goods move rather than after a sample has been drawn. The second is that inspection happens with the goods already in Japan and in bond, so a failure is expensive in a way that a failure at origin is not. Everything that can be verified before shipment should be.
Labelling is a separate workstream. Prepacked dried fruit sold in Japan carries mandatory labelling including additives, allergen information and ingredient and origin details, with additives listed in descending order of content. That is local-language work, and it is the importer who is positioned to do it — but it depends entirely on composition data the supplier provides, which is where delays usually originate.
South Korea: facility registration and a low declaration threshold
Korea runs imported food safety under a dedicated framework, the Special Act on Imported Food Safety Management, which introduced pre-registration of overseas food facilities for certain categories and gives MFDS a legal basis to act against facilities that refuse on-site inspection. Whether a specific product falls into a category requiring registered-facility supply is something to establish for that product, early, with the importer — it is not a question to answer from general knowledge, and a supplier who guesses at it is creating a problem rather than solving one.
On labelling, the threshold worth knowing is that sulphur dioxide present above 10 mg/kg must be declared. That is a declaration rule rather than a permitted level, and the permitted level for a given dried fruit is a separate matter to confirm per product. We would rather say that plainly than quote a figure we cannot stand behind.
What these buyers evaluate besides compliance
Both markets are exacting on things European buyers treat as secondary. Appearance uniformity matters more — variation in colour or piece size that would pass without comment in a European wholesale lot draws questions. Packaging presentation is held to a higher standard, including how a pack looks after transport rather than how it looked when it was filled.
Documentation completeness is read as a character reference. A supplier who sends a full, consistent data pack without being chased has said something about how they operate, and in both markets that impression carries weight into the commercial discussion. The reverse is equally true and harder to recover from.
Why an additive-free range simplifies the file
Where no sulphite is used, a residual limit has nothing to bind and a declaration threshold is never approached. That removes the single largest source of friction in these two markets in one step. It does not remove the rest — import notification, local-language labelling, mycotoxin and residue expectations, and category-specific registration questions all remain — so it simplifies the file rather than closing it.
TeraVella's dried fruit line is built that way as a matter of process rather than as a market strategy. Our fruit crisps are dried at low temperature at our geothermal facility in Sındırgı and contain fruit and nothing else: no added sugar, no preservatives, no colourants, no sulphite. Production runs under ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 with batch-level traceability, and we hold no certification beyond those. We supply specifications, ingredient and allergen data and a certificate of analysis on request, and we plan mycotoxin and residue analysis into the production window rather than chasing it afterwards. Volumes, formats and prices are confirmed at quotation, and where a market requirement is one we cannot meet, we say so at the start rather than letting it surface at a bonded warehouse.
