Sourcing blood meal from China

Blood meal duty and import eligibility

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 29 September 2026, heading 2301 covers animal meals unfit for human consumption and greaves. The relevant animal-meal line, 2301 10 00 00, carries 0% duty for goods from China, with no recorded anti-dumping or countervailing duty and no suspension. The supplied record contains only this blood-meal-relevant line. See the wider fishmeal and animal meal guide.

The tariff attaches veterinary control. For an eligible import, official guidance requires a health certificate, notification through IPAFFS and entry through an approved border control post. These procedures do not authorise prohibited Chinese feed material. Confirm the CHED-P clearance requirement with your customs broker. The line also attaches CITES, seal-product, organic and waste import controls, plus CITES and waste export controls.

CITES-listed material requires permits; commercial seal products require the indigenous-community exemption and a seal catch certificate. For organic imports, ask the approved UK organic control body to confirm importer establishment and certification requirements; confirm inspection certificates with the broker. Waste controls apply where the material is waste; confirm notification and consent requirements. Give species, processing, composition and intended use to the commodity code check. These controls do not establish that Chinese blood meal is admissible.

Specify species, processing and intended use

State the animal species, whether the product is pure blood meal or a blend, and whether the proposed use is feed or fertiliser. Ask for the raw-material description and heat-treatment record. Official guidance includes blood meal within processed animal protein, whose country-approval route excludes fishmeal and uses the fresh-meat-of-ungulates country list.

Chinese animal-feed products of animal origin are prohibited unless a safeguard exception applies. Ask APHA to confirm whether the proposed blood meal qualifies before ordering. For a fertiliser proposal, ask APHA to confirm the country and product route before ordering. Do not assume that changing the intended use establishes eligibility.

Agree crude protein, moisture, ash, particle size, digestibility where relevant, packaging and storage conditions. For proposed feed sales, confirm feed business registration, feed-material naming, statutory declarations and undesirable-substance requirements with the relevant authority. Define the analysis brief through testing and certification support.

Worked duty example

Illustrative example, not a quote: Illustrative costing only: 12 tonnes of blood meal, subject to confirmed import eligibility under 2301 10 00 00, invoiced at £3,500 free on board, with £2,680 of freight and insurance to the UK. The customs value is £6,180. Duty at 0% is £0. Import VAT at 20% is charged on the customs value plus duty, £6,180, so it is £1,236. With no duty, the only import tax is the VAT, which a VAT-registered importer can usually reclaim. The import duty and VAT guide explains each step. This assumes the goods are standard-rated for VAT. Most food for human consumption is zero-rated, and animal feed can be too, in which case no import VAT is due, so check the rate for your product in HMRC's VAT Notice 701/14.

Inspection checklist

Identity: compare the declared species, raw materials and pure or blended composition with the contract and retained sample.

Analysis: independently sample the batch and compare protein, moisture, ash and agreed digestibility results with the specification; investigate unexplained dilution.

Condition: check for dampness, hard lumps, mould, damaged bags and unusual odours on arrival; keep affected samples separate.

Traceability: match bag and batch references to processing records, laboratory reports and shipping documents. Agree sampling through the quality inspection guide.

What goes wrong

The first failure is ordering against a tariff rate without establishing import eligibility. Even though the commodity line carries 0% duty, ask APHA or your customs broker to confirm whether Chinese feed-grade blood meal qualifies under the safeguard exceptions before ordering. A supplier's description as fertiliser needs a separate eligibility check before payment or shipment.

Quality disputes arise when the shipment differs from the sample, moisture causes caking, or fillers alter protein and ash. Fix the composition and acceptance tests in writing, retain loading samples and compare them with independently drawn arrival samples. Inspection establishes batch condition; it does not resolve import eligibility.

Cambridge China Bridge sources these products for UK businesses, checking the factory and the documents before shipment. See factory verification. For repeat volumes, see container programmes.