Sourcing frozen lychees from China

Duty depends on added sugar

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 4 November 2026, heading 0811 covers frozen fruit and nuts, uncooked or cooked by steaming or boiling in water, with or without added sweetening matter. HMRC includes lychees in its frozen tropical fruit classification. Whole and peeled unsweetened lychees share the same tariff line, shown separately here for purchasing purposes.

For Chinese-origin goods, 0811 90 85 00 carries 8%, with an autonomous suspension to 0.00% that excludes mixtures, preparations and products containing different components. Sweetened lychees carry 12% under 0811 90 31 00, or 12% plus £4.40 per 100 kg under 0811 90 11 00 when sugar content exceeds 13% by weight. These lines show no anti-dumping or countervailing duty. The tariff attaches organic import control; organic consignments from China to Great Britain need an inspection certificate issued by the exporter’s control body.

Confirm ingredients, added sweetening matter, sugar content and whether the shipment contains only lychees before choosing the commodity code. Ask your customs broker to confirm suspension eligibility for the actual declaration. See the frozen fruit and berries guide for the wider heading.

Specify lychee flesh, seeds and thawed texture

Specify variety, growing origin and the actual processing factory. Agree whole fruit or peeled flesh, deseeded or seed-in supply, individual freezing or block freezing, fruit size, broken flesh, peel and seed fragments. State added sugar and other ingredients explicitly. Approve a sample after thawing using the intended kitchen process, checking sweetness, firmness, colour and liquid loss.

Agree pack weight, seals, storage instructions, loading temperature and transport records. Confirm with the Food Standards Agency the hygiene standards and safety procedures applicable to imported fruit in Great Britain. Agree batch-specific pesticide, contaminant and microbiological testing suited to whether the lychees will be cooked or eaten after thawing. Confirm the food business operator or importer address requirements for pre-packed food sold in Great Britain with the relevant local authority before approving labels.

Worked duty example

Illustrative example, not a quote: Illustrative only: 5 tonnes of sweetened frozen lychee flesh under 0811 90 31 00, invoiced at £20,000 free on board, with £1,800 of freight and insurance to the UK. The customs value is £21,800. Duty at 12% is £2,616. Import VAT at 20% is charged on the customs value plus duty, £24,416, so it is £4,883.20. Import taxes total £7,499.20; a VAT-registered importer can usually reclaim the VAT, so the lasting cost is the £2,616 of duty. 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

Flesh: thaw representative samples and compare firmness, colour, flavour and liquid loss with the approved sample; inspect for remaining seeds, hard seed fragments and peel.

Freezing: probe product temperatures and review loading and transport records; check clumping, ice build-up and freezer burn against the agreed specification.

Packing: check net weight, seals, torn liners, crushed cartons and batch identification; confirm the contents match the ingredient declaration.

Documents: match laboratory reports and any organic inspection certificate to the shipped batch. Agree sampling and defect recording through the quality inspection guide.

What goes wrong

A frozen sample can hide soft flesh and excessive liquid loss after thawing. Incomplete deseeding leaves hard fragments, while rough peeling produces torn flesh. Compare the actual shipment after controlled thawing and record defects before accepting it.

Undeclared sweetening changes both the specification and tariff treatment. A mixed-fruit product cannot simply inherit the suspension for plain unsweetened lychees. A general organic supplier certificate also cannot replace the consignment inspection certificate. Check the recipe and shipment documents before loading.

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.