Solutions / Clear customs first time
Clear customs the first time.
Since the EU's CATCH system went live, a catch certificate that used to clear in days can now sit for weeks — and most of the hold-ups trace back to things that were fixable before the container ever shipped. SmarTuna checks your consignment against EU CATCH, US SIMP and US FSMA requirements before you submit, so issues get solved upstream instead of at the port.
The problem
The border is the worst place to find a problem.
By the time a file reaches EU CATCH, SIMP or FSMA, the product is already at port. A missing document, a weight that doesn't reconcile, a link back to the vessel that doesn't quite join up — any one of them stops the consignment. And while it waits, demurrage runs, bonded warehouse and cold storage fills, and fresh product loses value by the day.
The frustrating part is that most rejections are based on basic, preventable things: data that doesn't match across documents, an incomplete certificate, a vessel that can't be shown as authorized, a chain of custody with a gap in it. Every one of those is knowable before the consignment ships — if you're looking at the right moment.
Digital Tuna Product Passports
| Digital Tuna Product Passport | Digital Tuna ID | Outer units | Production date |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIN56KCCDC71E1 | M19229-FS-19150-FC-1S | 336 | Jul 1, 2026 |
Attached documents
| Name | File Type | User | Date | Preview | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea Container Quarantine Declaration | Food Safety | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Product Specification Sheet | Specification | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Health Certificate | Health Certificate | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Dolphin Safe Certificate | Dolphin Safe Certificate | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Certificate of Origin | Origin Doc | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| DTI | MSC Batch Certificate | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Invoice | Invoice | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Packing List | Packing List | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 | ||
| Bill Of Lading | Bill of Lading | Chanida T | Aug 20, 2026 |
The approach
Check readiness before you submit — not after.
SmarTuna turns the question around. Because your supply-chain data is captured from the first mile, the platform can check a consignment against the filing requirements while it's still being prepared — and tell you plainly whether it will clear, or exactly what's missing, before anything goes in.
It's the difference between submitting and hoping, and submitting because you already know.
What gets checked
Four things stop a consignment. All four get checked.
A customs rejection almost always comes down to one of four things. SmarTuna checks all four, across every stage from catch to export.
Consistency
Species, catch area and weights reconcile across catch, transshipment, landing, processing and export, so nothing contradicts itself between documents.
Completeness
Every document each framework requires is present — and the platform knows which party owes the ones that aren’t.
Linkage
An unbroken chain from the vessel to the consignment, with no missing events in between.
Authorization
The vessel was cleared to catch it, isn’t on an IUU list, and the processing establishment is approved.
The result is a readiness view — every required element, every stage, marked ready, needs-attention, or missing — so a file is either clear to submit or comes with a precise, short list of what to fix.
Timing
You'll know weeks before the importer would.
This is the part that changes the economics, and it's structural — it falls out of first-mile capture rather than being a separate feature.
The gap surfaces at the port of entry
An importer discovers a missing certificate or an inconsistent weight when the container is already sitting at the border and the clock is running. Demurrage accrues while the item is chased back down a chain that has moved on.
≈ 3 weeks Typical clearance when a file comes backThe same gap surfaces at discharge
The fish is still moving. The missing item can be requested from the party who owes it, in time to actually fix it — before the consignment is committed to a shipment.
≈ 2 days Clearance when the file is right on submissionThat head start is the whole difference between a two-day clearance and a three-week one.
The economics
Compliance that costs less, not more.
Every hour an import team spends assembling a file by hand, every day a container waits on a hold, every submission that comes back, costs — on margins measured in cents per unit.
Getting the file right before it ships turns those costs the other way. Digitalization is supposed to mean less cost, not more — and this is where that promise gets kept.
A higher first-time-clearance rate
Files go in already checked against the framework they are being filed under.
Shorter, more predictable times
Fewer round trips means clearance you can plan a delivery around.
Less demurrage and cold storage
Containers spend their time moving rather than waiting on a hold.
Far less re-keying and chasing
The data is captured once, at the source, and reused for every filing.
Every market you sell into
Three frameworks, one readiness check.
Ship to the EU and you face EU CATCH. Ship to the US and it's SIMP and FSMA. Underneath, your buyers are moving toward GDST.
EU CATCH
Catch certificates validated against the consignment before submission into the EU’s digital system.
US SIMP
Seafood Import Monitoring Program data assembled and reconciled at the point of entry filing.
US FSMA 204
Traceability records for covered foods, retrievable within 24 hours of a request.
SmarTuna checks a consignment against the requirements of each market you sell into, from one system and one set of first-mile data — so you're not maintaining a separate compliance process per destination.
Timing, again
The federal deadline isn't the one that matters first.
US FSMA Rule 204 requires covered operations to produce traceability records within 24 hours of a request.
Supplier traceability requirements from major retailers are live today, years ahead of the federal date — and a chargeback or a lost listing arrives long before an FDA action would.
That 2028 date feels comfortably far off — which is exactly the trap. Major retailers aren't waiting for it, and for most suppliers the practical deadline is already here: a requirement made a condition of doing business.
Waiting for 2028 to get ready means building under pressure, against a customer's clock, with no room to fix what doesn't work the first time. Getting ready now means the 2028 deadline is a formality you already clear.
The result
What this means for your business.
Built for the whole ocean
See a consignment checked before it ships.
SmarTuna works across all oceans, all seafood species, and every major fishing and farming method. Developed by Pacifical, the team behind the traceability system used by the world's largest MSC-certified purse-seine tuna fishery.