GHAD and FASEH Explained: The Two SFDA Systems Every Cosmetics Exporter Must Know

If you've started looking into exporting cosmetics to Saudi Arabia, you've probably met a confusing set of names: eCosma, GHAD, FASEH, FASAH. Two of them sound almost the same, one no longer exists as a separate platform, and they belong to different government bodies. No wonder UAE exporters and even many freight forwarders mix them up.

This article sets out what each system is, who logs into it, what it does for your shipment and the order in which they are used. Once you see how GHAD and FASEH fit together, the whole SFDA process makes much more sense.

The short version

GHAD is about the product. FASEH is about the shipment. FASAH is about customs.

GHAD: SFDA's unified electronic system

What changed from eCosma

For years, cosmetic products in Saudi Arabia were listed on eCosma. On 30 March 2023, SFDA made its Unified Electronic System, GHAD, mandatory for three cosmetics services:

1. Notification of cosmetic and perfumery products
2. Notification of cosmetic manufacturing sites
3. Licensing of warehouses that store and distribute cosmetics

Existing eCosma data was linked and moved across to GHAD, and new applications on the old platform stopped. You'll still see "eCosma" in older guides and even in some SFDA documents, because the cosmetics listing module carries that name inside GHAD. If someone sends you a 2021 checklist that says "register on eCosma", the content is probably still useful, but the portal is now GHAD.

Who uses GHAD

GHAD accounts are held by Saudi entities. To create an account, SFDA asks for:

• The establishment's main Commercial Registration
• ID of the owner (sole establishments) or the incorporation contract (companies)
• An investment licence if the company is foreign or mixed ownership
• ID or residency of the person responsible for the application
• A legal agency or Chamber of Commerce-certified authorisation for that person

A UAE company cannot open a GHAD account to notify products for the Saudi market. Your Saudi importer does. That importer becomes the notifier, the legal "responsible person" for the product in Saudi Arabia.

What goes into a product notification

According to SFDA's Guidance and Requirements of Cosmetic Product Notification, the notifier submits:

• Clear images of the product from all sides, inner and outer label, plus any leaflet (PNG, JPG, TIFF or PDF)
• A label that conforms to the cosmetic regulations and GSO 1943
• The product's own barcode, entered for each size and colour
• All active and inactive ingredients, their roles and exact concentrations
• Supporting documents as SFDA requires

If an ingredient is missing from the GHAD database, the notifier must supply its INCI name and CAS number so SFDA can add it.

The notifier's responsibilities

SFDA makes the notifier responsible for product safety, for keeping a Product Information File (PIF) to SFDA's specification SFDA.CO 6000:2020, for reporting adverse effects and recalls in any country, for documenting wholesale sales and for following SFDA circulars. This is why serious Saudi distributors ask detailed questions before listing a new brand. They carry the legal risk.

Update or new notification?

A useful rule from the SFDA guidance:

Changing your Saudi distributor means your products need a new notification under the new importer. Plan for this before you switch partners, or your next shipment may be stuck.

Renewal

Under Article 6 of the Cosmetic Products Law, the notifier must renew a product notification at least 90 days before it expires. An expired listing means no CoC and no clearance.

Because the label and ingredient list must match the GHAD notification, check them first against our Saudi cosmetics labelling checklist.

FASEH: SFDA's electronic clearance platform

What it does

FASEH is where clearance of an SFDA-regulated consignment begins. For cosmetics, the importer requests a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for each shipment through FASEH. SFDA introduced the platform so that clearance requests are reviewed before the consignment arrives at the port or border, rather than after.

The CoC is issued by an SFDA-approved conformity assessment body. The body reviews the shipment documents, checks them against the GHAD notification, and for UAE exports carries out a physical inspection with witnessed loading, sampling and sealing before the goods leave.

What the conformity body asks for

A typical document request (based on Bureau Veritas's SFDA cosmetics datasheet, 2024) includes:

• Request for Certificate (RFC)
• Commercial invoice (a proforma opens the file) showing the manufacturer, origin, invoice number/date, product names and batch/lot or production date
• An ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab test report
• A valid GHAD registration number
• The exporter's commercial registration and the manufacturer's industrial registration
• An ingredient list with concentrations
• Label photos from every side
• The HS code (Saudi tariff), units, quantities and packing measure
• Certificate of origin and a QMS certificate

Once the CoC is issued in FASEH, the consignment is ready for customs.

FASAH: Saudi Customs' platform (not SFDA)

FASAH sounds almost identical to FASEH, but it is the Saudi Customs (ZATCA) national single window for imports and exports. Your Saudi customs broker files the import declaration on FASAH. Because SFDA's systems are linked to it, the customs and SFDA officers at Al Batha, Dammam or Jeddah can see whether the goods have a valid notification and CoC.

Products regulated by SASO rather than SFDA go through the SABER platform instead; our guide to SFDA vs SABER explains the difference.

The order of events

1. GHAD: importer notifies the product. Done once, renewed as needed.
2. FASEH: importer requests the CoC, the conformity body reviews and inspects in the UAE, and the CoC is issued.
3. UAE export: export declaration and transport from the UAE.
4. FASAH: Saudi broker files the import declaration, SFDA and customs check, duty and VAT are paid, cargo is released.

If a step is missed, the shipment can be held at the border. See 12 reasons cosmetics shipments get held at the Saudi border.

Where JW Marine & Freight fits in

We are a UAE-based freight forwarder, not an SFDA portal user. Our job is to make sure the work done in GHAD and FASEH actually meets the cargo:

• We ask for your GHAD numbers and match them to your invoice and packing list before anything is booked
• We coordinate the CoC request with approved conformity bodies and keep the file moving
• We host the inspection at our UAE warehouse, with goods sorted by SKU and batch, and load and seal in front of the inspector
• We hand the complete pack to our Saudi broker for a smooth FASAH declaration and SFDA check

For every step from product listing to delivery, see our complete SFDA guide to shipping cosmetics from the UAE to Saudi Arabia.

On the Saudi side, our partner brokers file the import declaration on FASAH as part of our customs clearance service.