Importing seafood into the UK
Importing seafood into the UK is subject to a range of requirements designed to protect public and animal health and to deter fraudulent imports. These include catch certification, import risk categorisation, approved supplier lists, and customs procedures.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published detailed guidance on these requirements, covering imports to both Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Read guidance on importing or moving fish to the UK via the link below:
Supplementary information on importing seafood
The following sections provide supplementary information to help importers understand the rules in more detail. We recommend reading this alongside the Defra guidance above.
Catch certification
Products listed in Annex I of the IUU Regulation are exempt from the catch certificate requirement. Supporting commercial documents must clearly show that no catch certificate is needed, including evidence that the product is of aquaculture origin.
Import risk categories
Risk categories apply to imports into Great Britain only. All consignments of fish and fishery product consignments undergo documentary checks on arrival. Identity and physical checks are carried out at a frequency determined by their risk category. For fish and fishery products intended for human consumption the categories are either low risk or medium risk.
Below is a link to guidance on the risk categories of fish and fishery products from the EU, Faroes, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.
Guidance on the risk categories of fish and fishery products from countries outside the EU is given below. Note that, this risk categorisation does not cover all non-EU countries. Check the import risk categories, inspection rates, and rules for non-EU animal and animal product imports to Great Britain.
The UK accepts fish and fishery products from some countries that are not covered by the risk categories above. Consignments from these countries are checked at a different rate. Whereas the documentary check rate is the same (100%) for these consignments, the identity and physical check rates are higher. Check frequencies are in Annex I to assimilated Regulation (EU) 2019/2129.
Approved suppliers outside the UK
Fish and fishery products can be imported from ‘listed’ suppliers only. These include processors, freezer vessels, factory vessels, cold stores and others that appear on the official lists of establishments permitted to export fishery products to Great Britain.
These suppliers can be viewed via the link below:
For imports into Northern Ireland from non-EU countries, the establishment lists can be viewed via the below link:
Rules of origin
Seafish has a webinar on rules of origin for seafood. It covers preferential and non-preferential rules, how to apply them, and how economic origin is established.
Find out more from the link below:
Seafood import customs, tariffs and VAT
Seafish provides guidance on customs, tariffs and VAT rules that apply to seafood intended for import into the UK.
Find out more via the link below: