Products must meet the following requirements to qualify for the program:
- The product must be "substantially made" in California in accordance with California Government Code section 12098.10 et seq.
For purposes of the program, "substantially made" means completing an act that adds at least 51 percent of a final product’s wholesale value by manufacture assembly, fabrication, or production to create a final, recognizable product. This does not include the act of packaging a product.
- The product must be able to lawfully use a "Made in U.S.A." label pursuant to Section 17533.7 of California's Business and Professions Code.
- An annual fee must be paid, ranging from $100 to $150, depending on the number of products in an application.
- Certification from a third-party is required at least once every three years.
Note: Food and agricultural products are excluded. These products are under the CA Grown program and, therefore, do not qualify for CA Made. For products with recycled materials, the origin of the recycled materials may be based on the location where those materials were produced (i.e., California, another state, or in another country). Ultimately, it is the third-party certifier's responsibility to make this determination based on their certification methodology.
Eligible applicants may include sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, or any other business entity type that is legally authorized to do business in California.
Third-Party Certification
The statute for CA Made indicates that a qualified third-party certifier is an "individual, group, or association that possesses a professional license, certification, or
other equivalent documentation indicating sufficient training, education, or expertise to perform a regulatory compliance audit." The definition of "third-party certifier" in the final adopted regulations includes three additional criteria:
- Legally and financially separate from the applicant;
- "Familiar" with the product being certified, meaning the "third-party certifier" has sufficient knowledge about the supply chain of the specified product(s) to verify the source of the product components in order to perform a third-party regulatory audit as set forth in Government Code section 12098.10 et seq.; and,
- Legally authorized to operate in California.
Applicants will provide the third-party certifier with the CA Made Third-Party Certification Form to complete and sign. The applicant will upload the completed and signed CA Made Third-Party Certification Form to their application before submitting it via the website.
Finding a Third-Party Certifier
To obtain a third-party certification an applicant may want to contact a certified public accountant, attorney, industry association and/or supply chain specialist, among other certification bodies. GO-Biz will list third-party certifiers below to assist applicants in obtaining the required certification. Please note that GO-Biz does not approve, select, endorse, or provide oversight of any third-party certifiers, including those listed on this website. Third-party certifiers do not receive funding from GO-Biz. GO-Biz is not responsible for verifying product compliance or applicant and third-party certifier compliance. A business or third-party certifier that does not follow the program’s requirements could become subject to a lawsuit from another entity.
If you are interested in certifying businesses for the CA Made program, please visit our section on Becoming a Third-Party Certifier.