Sourcing cultivators and farm machinery from China
Agricultural, horticultural and forestry machinery for soil preparation and cultivation from China, including ploughs, harrows, cultivators, rotovators, seeders and spreaders, pays 0% UK duty, with no anti-dumping duty. Machines must meet the machinery safety rules, and engines fitted to them need emission type approval. Cambridge China Bridge sources cultivation machinery.
Rotovators, tillers, cultivators, harrows, ploughs, seeders and fertiliser spreaders pay 0% UK duty from China. Machinery safety, engines and a worked example.
Zero duty
Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, ploughs, disc harrows, scarifiers and cultivators, other harrows, rotovators, seeders, planters and transplanters, manure spreaders, fertiliser distributors, other soil preparation machinery and parts of heading 8432 carried 0% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure.
Lawn mowers and harvesting machinery are in heading 8433, covered in the lawn mowers guide, sprayers in 8424 and tractors in 8701; confirm the commodity code.
| Goods | Commodity code | Duty | Anti-dumping duty on China |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ploughs | 8432 10 00 00 | 0% | None |
| Disc harrows | 8432 21 00 00 | 0% | None |
| Scarifiers and cultivators | 8432 29 10 00 | 0% | None |
| Rotovators and tillers | 8432 29 50 00 | 0% | None |
| Planters and transplanters | 8432 39 90 00 | 0% | None |
| Fertiliser distributors | 8432 42 00 00 | 0% | None |
| Other machinery | 8432 80 00 00 | 0% | None |
| Parts | 8432 90 00 00 | 0% | None |
Safety and engines
Cultivation machinery must meet the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, with guards over tines, blades and drive shafts, a declaration of conformity and UKCA or CE marking. Pedestrian-controlled tillers and rotary cultivators are usually tested to EN 709, and tractor-mounted implements to the relevant part of the EN ISO 4254 series, with guards for the power take-off shaft.
Petrol and diesel engines on self-propelled or pedestrian machines must be type-approved for non-road mobile machinery emissions and carry the approval label, so check the engine certificate as well as the machine's paperwork.
Worked duty example
Suppose, purely for illustration, you import 60 petrol rotovators under 8432 29 50 00. At £21,000 free on board and £2,500 to ship and insure, the customs value is £23,500. With 0% duty on rotovators, the only charge is import VAT: 20% of £23,500, or £4,700. VAT-registered businesses usually recover that in their next return. The method is set out in how UK import duty and VAT work.
What goes wrong
Cultivators fail at the tines, gearbox and guards. Tines of soft steel bend or wear quickly in stony UK soils, gearboxes leak or strip when the engine is larger than the transmission was designed for, and handles vibrate so much that users cannot work for long. Guards and deadman controls are sometimes missing on samples meant for export, and engines arrive without the emission label.
Run the machine in real soil on the sample, check tine hardness and fixing, check gearbox oil seals and temperature after use, check that the deadman control stops the tines quickly and that guards are fitted, and confirm the engine approval label and spares list before shipment.
Cambridge China Bridge sources rotovators, cultivators, harrows, seeders and spreaders, with safety standards, engine approval and spares agreed before the order. Read how we source garden and farm machinery.
Frequently asked questions
What is the UK import duty on rotovators from China?
Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, rotovators and other cultivation machinery of heading 8432 carried 0% duty from China.
Which standard covers garden tillers?
Pedestrian-controlled tillers and rotary cultivators are usually tested to EN 709.
Do tiller engines need approval?
Yes. Engines on non-road mobile machinery must be emission type-approved and labelled.
Where do lawn mowers go?
Lawn mowers and harvesting machinery are in heading 8433, not 8432.