Agmark Certification Guide — India's Statutory Quality Mark for Agricultural Produce: DMI, the 1937 Grading & Marking Act, Notified Commodities, Labs, and How It Differs from FSSAI, BIS Hallmark and AGMARKNET

Agmarkis India's statutory quality-certification mark for agricultural and allied produce. It is issued by the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), Faridabad, under the Agricultural Produce (Grading & Marking) Act, 1937 and the General Grading & Marking Rules, 1988. The Agmark logo on a retail pack of edible oil, ghee, honey, atta, dal or spice powder is not a food-safety mark — food safety is the mandatory FSSAI regime under the 2006 Act — it is a voluntary quality-grade mark saying the packer holds a valid Certificate of Authorisation from DMI, the specific commodity is one of the ~220 notified commodities under the 1937 Act, and the lot in the pack has been graded to a published standard at a DMI-authorised laboratory.

This guide covers the statutory basis of Agmark, the notified commodities and their grade designations, the CAL Nagpur plus eleven Regional Agmark Laboratories that do the testing, how a food processor or FPO applies for a Certificate of Authorisation, and — importantly — how Agmark relates to and differs from FSSAI, BIS / ISI, India Organic (NPOP), the legacy FPO fruit-products mark, and the price-reporting system AGMARKNET which shares the same DMI parent and confuses users constantly.

The statutory basis: the 1937 Act and the 1988 Rules

Agmark predates independence. The Agricultural Produce (Grading & Marking) Act, 1937 was enacted by the Government of India to empower the Centre to notify commodities for grading, prescribe grade designations and standards, and authorise packers to affix a specified mark — the Agmark— on packs conforming to the standard. The Act sits with the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and is implemented by DMI. The operational rules are the General Grading & Marking Rules, 1988, which set out the procedure for applying for a Certificate of Authorisation (CA), the sample-drawal and testing protocol at Regional Agmark Laboratories (RALs), the format of the printed label including the Agmark logo and grade designation, and the fees payable per commodity and grade tier. Commodity-specific grading rules are then notified under the Act — e.g. the Ghee Grading & Marking Rules, the Vegetable Oils Grading & Marking Rules, the Wheat Atta Grading & Marking Rules, the Ground Spices Grading & Marking Rules, the Honey Grading & Marking Rules — each carrying the physical, chemical and hygienic parameters against which lots are tested.

What Agmark is not: it is not FSSAI, and it is not AGMARKNET

Two clarifications that come up almost every time Agmark is discussed:

• Agmark is not FSSAI. Food safety for every packaged food sold in India is mandatorily regulated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 — every packer needs an FSSAI licence or registration and the FSSAI number on-pack. FSSAI enforces safety limits (pesticide residues, aflatoxins, heavy metals, microbial counts). Agmark, by contrast, is a voluntary quality-grading scheme layered on top — a pack of mustard oil can and often does carry both marks, because they attest to different things.
• Agmark is not AGMARKNET. AGMARKNET (agmarknet.gov.in) is a market-price data portal launched in March 2000 that publishes daily wholesale mandi prices and arrivals from about 3,300 regulated APMC markets — no grading, no laboratory, no certification. Both are DMI initiatives so the names collide, but AGMARKNET is a data system and Agmark is a certification mark. See our AGMARKNET guide for the price portal.

The notified commodities: what can carry an Agmark

About 220 commodities are notified under the 1937 Act, spread across:

• Edible oils — mustard, groundnut, sesame, coconut, sunflower, safflower, rice bran, cottonseed, soybean and blended edible oils.
• Vanaspati, ghee and dairy — cow ghee, buffalo ghee, mixed ghee, butter, and vanaspati (partially hydrogenated vegetable oil).
• Honey — with grade tiers based on sucrose, moisture, HMF and pollen count.
• Spices — whole and ground turmeric, chilli, coriander, cumin, black pepper, cardamom, fennel, fenugreek, cloves and dozens more.
• Pulses and dals — arhar/tur, moong, urad, gram/chana, masur, and their split-dal forms.
• Wheat products — atta, maida, suji/rava.
• Other cereals — besan (chickpea flour), unpolished rice, roasted-and-ground food grains.
• Sweeteners and starches — gur/jaggery, tapioca sago.
• Feed — cattle feed, compound livestock feed.
• Select horticultural produce — including grades used for export lots.

Not every notified commodity has active CA-holders in every state, and DMI updates the notified list periodically. The current list is on dmi.gov.in with the commodity-specific grading rule that a packer must comply with.

The CAL Nagpur plus eleven Regional Agmark Laboratories

Testing is done at a two-tier laboratory network:

• Central Agmark Laboratory (CAL), Nagpur — the apex facility. CAL handles the analytically demanding work (adulteration testing, chromatographic profiles of edible oils, referee samples in disputed cases, method validation for new commodities) and trains RAL analysts.
• Eleven Regional Agmark Laboratories — at Amritsar, Bhopal, Byculla (Mumbai), Chennai, Delhi, Guntur, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata and Rajkot, with sub-offices in commodity-heavy districts. RALs handle the volume grading for CA-holders in their jurisdiction. A Punjab-based atta mill would deal with RAL Amritsar; an Andhra Pradesh chilli packer with RAL Guntur; a Rajasthan honey packer with RAL Jaipur.

Referee samples that dispute an RAL finding go to CAL Nagpur for adjudication.

How a packer or FPO gets an Agmark Certificate of Authorisation

A typical first-time application walk-through:

1. Confirm the commodity is notified. Check the current list on dmi.gov.in and download the commodity-specific grading rule that will apply.
2. Set up in-house grading and packing. Equipment, hygiene, packaging material, printed label with grade designation, batch code, packer address and net quantity all need to conform to the grading rule.
3. File the CA application with the DMI Regional Office that has jurisdiction over your factory (the eleven RALs and their sub-offices; the current list is on dmi.gov.in). Supplies the factory address, list of products with grade sought, packaging specimens, and the proposed label draft.
4. DMI inspection. An officer visits the premises, verifies equipment and hygiene, and takes a first-lot sample for testing at the RAL.
5. CA and printing permission. On a successful RAL test, DMI issues the CA plus printing permission for the label carrying the Agmark logo and grade designation. The CA is time-bound (typically three years) and renewable.
6. Ongoing compliance. Post-authorisation, the packer must draw and dispatch periodic samples to the RAL at the frequency prescribed for the commodity, maintain a grading register, and use only the CA-approved label. RAL surveillance inspections and market-lift samples enforce ongoing compliance.

Fees are notified per commodity and grade tier and are modest for small units. Applications are increasingly filed through the Agmark online portal on dmi.gov.in.

Grade designations: Special, Standard, General, Grade-A

Grade tiers are commodity-specific, published in the grading rule for that commodity. A few illustrative examples:

• Ghee — Special / General, on the basis of Reichert value, Polenske value, Butyro-Refractometer reading and free fatty acid limits, with regional and species variants (cow ghee, buffalo ghee, mixed).
• Wheat atta and maida — Standard or Special, on the basis of moisture, gluten, ash content, granulation and freedom from added colouring matter.
• Whole spices — Grade-1 / Grade-2 / Grade-3 (sometimes Special / Good / Fair), on the basis of admixture, extraneous matter, damaged and discoloured proportion, and volatile-oil content.
• Honey — Special / Grade-A / Standard, on the basis of sucrose, moisture, HMF and pollen count.
• Pulses and dals — Special / Standard, on the basis of foreign matter, damaged grains, weeviled grains and split-and-broken proportion.

The point of tiered grading is that a buyer sees a printed quality signal on-pack — a Special-grade Agmark ghee has met tighter limits than a Standard-grade Agmark ghee, and both have met tighter limits than an ungraded pack that carries only FSSAI compliance.

When Agmark is effectively mandatory: exports

Agmark is voluntary for domestic sale, but two well-known export flows make it effectively mandatory:

• Basmati rice for export — the APEDA Basmati Export Development Foundation requires Agmark grading for basmati export consignments, as one leg of the quality attestation package alongside APEDA registration and phytosanitary certification.
• Select ground-spice exports — several importing countries insist on a grading certificate for consignments of ground turmeric, chilli powder or coriander powder; Agmark grading through an RAL is the standard route to satisfy that requirement out of India.

Where Agmark fits for an FPO or small food entrepreneur

A pragmatic sequencing for a small Indian food business that wants to sell packaged agri commodities under its own brand:

1. Register and get FSSAI first. Business registration (Udyam / GST as applicable) and the FSSAI licence or registration — this is legally mandatory before any packaged food is sold. The FSSAI number on-pack is non-negotiable.
2. Then apply for Agmark CA for each commodity. If you are packing atta, dals, spices, honey or edible oil under your own brand and want a differentiated quality signal, apply for the CA through your Regional Agmark Laboratory. Printed grade tier + defensible answer when a buyer questions quality.
3. If organic, layer India Organic (NPOP). An APEDA-accredited certifier under the National Programme for Organic Production covers the organic claim; Agmark and India Organic are layered separately.
4. For export, register with APEDA (or Spices Board / Coffee Board / Tea Board / Rubber Board depending on commodity). Agmark grading is typically required for basmati rice export and helpful for ground-spice exports.
5. For FPOs formed under the FPO scheme, an Agmark CA in the FPO name for one or two flagship commodities (mustard oil, honey, spice powders) is a strong step up from ungraded loose sale — and can be combined with WDRA-accredited warehousing for post-harvest finance on the graded stock.

Recurring compliance and enforcement issues

• Misuse of the logo — printing the Agmark logo without a valid CA or on a lot that has not been graded; DMI market-lift samples and RAL surveillance catch this, and the 1937 Act carries penalties under the Trade Marks Act 1999 read with the grading rules.
• Grade drift — a CA-holder starts at a Special grade and drifts to Standard-grade quality without changing the printed grade designation; periodic RAL sampling flags this.
• Adulteration in edible oils and ghee— the classic Agmark testing focus; CAL Nagpur's referee role kicks in on disputed samples.
• Pesticide residues in spices — an FSSAI concern primarily, but relevant to Agmark when the grading rule imports FSSAI safety limits by reference.
• Label-printing errors — batch code, packer address, net quantity or grade designation missing or wrong; RAL surveillance catches these.
• Overlap confusion with FSSAI — food business operators sometimes think that having FSSAI covers Agmark, or vice versa. They do not. FSSAI is mandatory safety; Agmark is voluntary quality grading. Both may be on the same pack.

Frequently asked questions

Authoritative sources

• dmi.gov.in — Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, with notified commodity list, grading rules, RAL contacts, CA application forms and fee schedules.
• India Code — indiacode.nic.in for the bare text of the Agricultural Produce (Grading & Marking) Act, 1937 and the General Grading & Marking Rules, 1988 as amended.
• fssai.gov.in — the parallel mandatory food-safety regime under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
• apeda.gov.in — for export notifications, notably basmati rice under the Basmati Export Development Foundation.
• agricoop.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare parent site for policy notifications on marketing reforms.

Notified-commodity counts and fee schedules are revised periodically; a packer preparing to apply for a Certificate of Authorisation should verify the current grading rule and fee for their commodity directly from the DMI notification before filing.