How to import fresh tomatoes into the UK from Morocco: the controls, documents and checks, step by step

How to import fresh tomatoes into the UK from Morocco: the controls, documents and checks, step by step

There's no health certificate for tomatoes — and importers who go looking for an EHC waste a week before they find that out.

Fresh tomatoes from Morocco are a regulated plant product, not a product of animal origin. That single distinction sets the whole import path. You need a phytosanitary certificate issued in Morocco, an IPAFFS pre-notification raised in GB, a CHED-PP (the Common Health Entry Document for plants and plant products — not a CHED-P), and an inspection regime governed by the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) risk category for tomatoes. Duty is a separate, smaller problem: under the UK-Morocco Association Agreement the goods may be tariff-favoured, but that's settled in your customs declaration on CDS, not at the plant-health check. This piece walks the consignment end to end so you can find your own weak link before a perishable load finds it for you.

A note before we start: this is practical guidance, not regulated advice, and plant-health rules change — BTOM risk categories in particular have moved. Check the current position for your specific commodity code and route on GOV.UK, or ask us, before you commit a load.

Do fresh tomatoes from Morocco need a phytosanitary certificate?

Yes. Fresh tomatoes are listed by Defra and APHA among the plants and plant products that require a phytosanitary certificate (a "phyto") to enter Great Britain. The certificate is issued by Morocco's national plant protection organisation in the exporting country and confirms the consignment has been inspected and meets GB plant-health requirements. Without it, you cannot pre-notify correctly, and the consignment will not clear.

The critical point is timing. A phytosanitary certificate has to be issued before the tomatoes leave Morocco — you cannot retrofit one once the lorry is rolling or the reefer is at sea. It is a government-to-government document: the exporter arranges inspection by the Moroccan plant protection authority, who issue the certificate against the consignment. Your job in GB is to make sure your supplier has it in hand, with the right detail, before despatch.

What goes on the phyto matters as much as having one. Check that the botanical name, the quantity, the commodity description, and the consignor/consignee details on the certificate match what you'll declare in IPAFFS and on your customs entry. Mismatches between the phyto, the pre-notification and the declaration are one of the most common reasons a load gets stopped for documentary query — and a query on a perishable is a hold you're paying for by the hour.

Is there a health certificate (EHC) for tomatoes?

No — and this is where importers coming from a meat, dairy or fish background lose time. An Export Health Certificate (EHC) is the document for products of animal origin (POAO). Tomatoes are a plant product, so the equivalent control is the phytosanitary certificate, not an EHC. Asking your Moroccan supplier for a health certificate sends everyone down the wrong route.

The two systems sit in parallel. POAO travel on an EHC and pre-notify as a CHED-P (animal products). Plants and plant products — fresh produce, cut flowers, seeds, fruit and vegetables — travel on a phyto and pre-notify as a CHED-PP. Live animals use CHED-A; high-risk food and feed not of animal origin use CHED-D. For Moroccan tomatoes the only one that matters is CHED-PP. Get the type wrong in IPAFFS and the consignment doesn't pre-notify correctly, which means it isn't properly presented to the GB border for plant-health checks.

If you import a mixed produce load, the principle holds per commodity: each regulated plant product needs to be covered by the phyto and captured in the pre-notification. A pallet of tomatoes alongside a pallet of, say, peppers is two regulated commodities, not one — both need to be on the paperwork.

What is IPAFFS and when do I raise the CHED-PP?

IPAFFS (Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System) is the GB government service where the importer — or their agent acting for them — raises the pre-notification that becomes the CHED-PP. It tells the authorities a consignment of regulated plant product is arriving, where, and when, so plant-health can decide whether to inspect it. You raise it before the goods arrive, and you upload or reference the phytosanitary certificate against it.

The pre-notification has a deadline before arrival at the GB point of entry. Raise it late and a perishable load waits on a paperwork clock — exactly the scenario that turns a routine import into a Friday-afternoon emergency. The required notice period depends on the mode and the current rules, so confirm the live timing for your route rather than assuming; with tomatoes, the safe discipline is "pre-notify as early as you reasonably can," not "pre-notify by the minimum."

Responsibility is the other thing importers get wrong. Your freight forwarder books the transport slot. Knowing the tomatoes need a CHED-PP raised in IPAFFS, with the phyto attached, before the lorry arrives — that's the importer's legal responsibility, even if you delegate the keystrokes to an agent. If no one has explicitly owned the IPAFFS entry, assume it hasn't been done. The system is the importer's to get right.

How does BTOM decide whether my tomatoes get inspected?

The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) sorts plants and plant products into risk categories — broadly high, medium and low risk — and the category sets how the consignment is treated at the border, including the rate of documentary, identity and physical checks. Lower-risk produce may face little or no routine physical inspection; higher-risk goods are checked more often, at a Border Control Post (BCP) or other designated place.

So the inspection on Moroccan tomatoes isn't guaranteed — whether yours get physically checked depends on the risk category that applies to tomatoes from that origin, and on whether your consignment is selected. This is deliberate: it concentrates inspection where the plant-health risk is highest. But it means two things for you. First, you can't plan on "we never get checked" — selection can happen. Second, BTOM categories have moved since the model was introduced, so a category you assumed for tomatoes a year ago may now be wrong. Verify the current category for your specific commodity code before you rely on it.

Where a physical check applies, the consignment must be presented at an appropriate BCP with the facilities for plant-health inspection, and the goods are held until released. For perishables this is where shelf life and cost collide — which is why the documents have to be right before arrival, so a documentary query never becomes the reason you're sitting at the BCP at all.

Does the UK-Morocco trade agreement make tomatoes duty-free?

This is the trap. Duty-free under the UK-Morocco agreement does not mean check-free. Preferential tariff treatment under the UK-Morocco Association Agreement addresses the customs duty you pay — it has nothing to do with the plant-health controls. The tomatoes still need a phytosanitary certificate, an IPAFFS pre-notification and a CHED-PP regardless of how favourable the duty rate is. Trade-deal preference and SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) controls are two separate gates, and clearing one does not clear the other.

To claim preference you'll need the right proof of origin as set out in the agreement, and the goods have to actually meet the agreement's rules of origin — broadly, that they genuinely originate in Morocco. For field-grown Moroccan tomatoes that's usually straightforward, but the claim is made on your customs declaration and has to be supported if challenged. Getting origin wrong means either overpaying duty or claiming a preference you're not entitled to. Neither is where you want to be.

Tomatoes also sit under a commodity code in chapter 07 of the tariff (edible vegetables), and the precise code drives the duty rate, any preference, and which controls flag against the goods. Classifying correctly is the foundation the rest of the entry stands on — get the code wrong and you can misread both the duty and the plant-health requirement.

What documents do I actually need, and who provides each?

Here's the full set for a straightforward consignment of fresh Moroccan tomatoes, and where each one comes from:

• Phytosanitary certificate — issued by Morocco's national plant protection organisation, arranged by your exporter/supplier, before despatch. Confirms the consignment meets GB plant-health requirements.
• IPAFFS pre-notification → CHED-PP — raised in IPAFFS by you (the importer) or your agent, before arrival, with the phyto referenced against it.
• Customs declaration on CDS — the import entry, lodged on the Customs Declaration Service by your customs agent or broker, declaring the commodity code, value, and any preference claim.
• Proof of origin — to support a UK-Morocco preference claim, per the agreement's requirements.
• Commercial documents — commercial invoice, packing list, and transport documents (the CMR or equivalent), which underpin both the customs and SPS entries.

What you don't need is an EHC — that's POAO only. And you don't need a separate import licence for ordinary fresh tomatoes; the regulated control is the plant-health pathway above. If anyone is quoting you for documents outside this set, ask them which specific rule requires it.

A worked example: a reefer of Moroccan tomatoes, end to end

Walk a real-shaped consignment. You've agreed to buy a chilled load of fresh tomatoes from a Moroccan grower, shipping to a GB port.

1. Before despatch (Morocco): your supplier books inspection with the Moroccan plant protection authority, who issue the phytosanitary certificate. You check the botanical name, quantity and consignee detail against what you'll declare. You confirm the commodity code with your broker so the duty and controls are known up front.
2. Pre-arrival (GB): you (or your agent) raise the IPAFFS pre-notification, selecting CHED-PP, reference the phyto, and submit it inside the required window. In parallel your broker prepares the CDS declaration with the commodity code and, if claiming it, the UK-Morocco preference and supporting proof of origin.
3. At the border: BTOM determines treatment by the tomatoes' risk category. If selected, the consignment is presented at a BCP for documentary, identity and/or physical checks. Because your phyto, pre-notification and declaration all match, there's no documentary query to slow things down.
4. Release: plant-health clears the CHED-PP, customs releases the entry, and the load moves to your premises — with shelf life intact, because the paperwork was right before the lorry arrived, not after.

The weak link is almost never the inspection itself. It's a phyto that didn't ship with the goods, a CHED type raised wrong, a late IPAFFS entry, or a mismatch between documents. Each is avoidable, and each is far cheaper to fix before despatch than at a BCP with a perishable clock running.

What does this cost in time, and where do perishables bite?

Tomatoes don't wait for paperwork. Every hour at a BCP eats shelf life, and the cost of a perishable hold compounds by the hour. We keep outcomes qualitative here on purpose — your exact exposure depends on the load, the route and the day — but the direction is not in doubt: a documentary query that holds a chilled load is far more expensive than the few hours it takes to get the documents aligned in advance.

That's the whole case for front-loading the work. The phyto issued correctly in Morocco, the right CHED-PP raised in IPAFFS inside the window, the commodity code and origin settled on the CDS entry — get those three things to line up before the goods move, and the border becomes a checkpoint you pass rather than a place your tomatoes sit.

Borders are complicated. We aren't.

Something held, or moving soon? The Falsum Helpdesk triages live customs and SPS issues — including produce stuck on a plant-health query at a BCP. Tell us the goods and the route, and we'll tell you exactly what you need: support.falsum.co.uk.

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