How do I import groundnuts (peanuts) into the UK from Argentina? The controls, documents and checks, step by step

How do I import groundnuts (peanuts) into the UK from Argentina? The controls, documents and checks, step by step

Peanuts are food, not POAO — so no EHC, no CHED-P. You're in IPAFFS raising a CHED-D instead.

That single distinction trips up more first-time groundnut importers than anything else, so it's worth getting straight before we walk the whole process. Groundnuts (peanuts) from Argentina are imported into Great Britain as high-risk food not of animal origin (HRFNAO), controlled for aflatoxin under retained EU rules on increased official controls. That means you classify the goods to the right commodity code, pre-notify in IPAFFS by raising a CHED-D, present the consignment at a designated border control post (BCP) or control point, and accept that documentary, identity and physical checks — including aflatoxin sampling — can apply on arrival. No animal-health certificate is involved; no plant-health phytosanitary route either. This is a contaminant-control job. Below is the step-by-step, the documents each step actually needs, and where importers most often get held.

Are groundnuts from Argentina actually subject to increased controls?

Yes. Groundnuts from Argentina sit on the GB list of high-risk food and feed not of animal origin (HRFNAO) subject to increased official controls for aflatoxin contamination. That listing — origin plus commodity plus contaminant — is what drives the pre-notification requirement and the sampling regime. It is set out in retained EU law and published on GOV.UK, and crucially the list is amended periodically.

The mechanism here is the retained version of Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 on the temporary increase of official controls on certain goods entering GB. It names commodities, origins and the contaminant of concern, and assigns each a frequency of identity and physical checks. For groundnuts from Argentina, the contaminant is aflatoxin — a group of mycotoxins produced by moulds that can develop in nuts and oilseeds during growing, harvest and storage.

The practical point: this is not a phytosanitary (plant-health) control. Groundnuts don't move on a phytosanitary certificate here. They move under contaminant controls, and the deciding authorities are the port health authority at your point of entry, working to FSA and Defra policy — not your freight forwarder, and not your supplier's lab in Argentina. A clean certificate of analysis from the exporter is useful evidence, but GB does its own official sampling regardless of what the supplier sends.

Because the list changes, check the current GOV.UK guidance for your specific commodity code and origin before you book freight. What applied to your last shipment may have been amended for your next.

What documents do I need to import groundnuts from Argentina?

You need, as a baseline: the correct commodity code, a commercial invoice and packing list, an IPAFFS pre-notification that generates a CHED-D, an EORI number, and a customs declaration on CDS. Aflatoxin consignments on the increased-controls list also require accompanying analytical and sampling documentation from the origin.

Let's take each in turn, because "what documents" is where the under-preparation happens.

Commodity code. Shelled groundnuts and in-shell groundnuts classify differently, and the code you declare determines your duty rate, whether the consignment falls under the increased-controls regime, and what the system expects to see. Get this wrong and the entry and the control regime won't match — which is itself a common cause of a hold. Use the GOV.UK Trade Tariff tool to confirm the code, and if there's any doubt, get the classification checked rather than guessed.

Commercial invoice and packing list. Standard, but they must describe the goods consistently with the commodity code and with the IPAFFS entry. Mismatched descriptions across the invoice, the code and the pre-notification are a recurring reason consignments get queried.

IPAFFS pre-notification → CHED-D. IPAFFS (Import of Products, Animals, Food and Feed System) is the GB system you use to pre-notify the arrival of controlled food. For HRFNAO like groundnuts, the pre-notification generates a CHED-D — a Common Health Entry Document for feed and food of non-animal origin. (Contrast: CHED-A is for live animals, CHED-P for products of animal origin/POAO, CHED-PP for plants and plant products. Groundnuts under contaminant control are CHED-D.) You — the importer, or your agent acting for you — raise this.

Analytical and sampling documents. Commodities on the increased-controls list for a contaminant typically need to be accompanied by the results of sampling and analysis from the country of origin and, where required, an official certificate. For aflatoxin in groundnuts, expect to provide a certificate of analysis and to reference any required origin sampling. Confirm the exact accompanying-document requirement for groundnuts from Argentina on the current GOV.UK increased-controls guidance, because the documentary requirement is part of what the BCP checks.

EORI and CDS declaration. You need a GB EORI number to import, and the customs declaration is made on CDS (the Customs Declaration Service). This is the duty and customs side, running in parallel with the SPS/contaminant side. The two have to agree.

Do I have to pre-notify groundnuts in IPAFFS, and when?

Yes — groundnuts on the increased-controls list must be pre-notified in IPAFFS, and you raise the CHED-D before the consignment arrives at the border control post. Late or missing pre-notification is its own, entirely avoidable, cause of delay. The pre-notification has to be lodged within the required window ahead of arrival.

The CHED-D you raise in IPAFFS does the work of telling the port health authority that a controlled consignment is coming, what it is, the commodity code, the quantity, the origin, the entry point and the expected arrival. It is the document the authority decides against. So the substance of what you declare matters: the description must match the code, and the code must match the control regime. A pre-notification that describes the goods loosely, or carries a code that doesn't align with the aflatoxin regime, sets up a mismatch the authority has to resolve — and resolving it takes time you don't have on an ambient cargo that's already incurring storage.

Practically, the sequence is: confirm the commodity code → confirm the goods are on the increased-controls list for that origin → raise the IPAFFS pre-notification and generate the CHED-D before arrival → present at the designated BCP → undergo checks → release. Most importers who get caught out find the gap two steps in: the code and the control regime don't line up, or the pre-notification went in late.

What checks happen at the border, and can I be held even with perfect paperwork?

Yes, you can. Three check types apply to HRFNAO on the increased-controls list: documentary (every consignment), identity (a proportion), and physical (a proportion, including laboratory sampling). For groundnuts under aflatoxin controls, a physical check means a sample is drawn and sent for analysis — and that can hold the consignment until results return, regardless of how clean your documents are.

This is the line that catches people: documents do not equal clearance. The documentary check confirms the paperwork is right and present. The identity check confirms the goods are what the paperwork says. The physical check — the one that bites for groundnuts — is where an officer draws a physical sample for aflatoxin testing.

The frequency of identity and physical checks is set by the increased-controls regulation for that commodity and origin, and it's reviewed periodically. You can look up the applicable frequency before you ship. But frequency is a probability, not a promise — your consignment can be selected even at a lower rate.

Two consequences flow from this for an ambient cargo:

• Plan the dwell time before the goods land, not after. Laboratory turnaround for aflatoxin analysis takes time, and the consignment generally stays put until the result clears it. Build that potential delay into your storage and onward-logistics planning. Discovering it at the BCP is the expensive way to learn it.
• The decision isn't your forwarder's. Whether your consignment gets a physical check is determined by the control regime and the port health authority, not by your logistics provider. A good agent makes sure the pre-notification is right and the goods present cleanly; they don't get to opt you out of sampling.

A worked example: a container of shelled groundnuts from Argentina

Take a typical case — an ambient container of shelled groundnuts shipping from Argentina to a GB port, destined for a food manufacturer.

Before booking freight. The importer confirms the commodity code for shelled groundnuts on the GOV.UK Trade Tariff, confirms the duty position, and checks the current increased-controls list — groundnuts from Argentina are listed for aflatoxin. So this is an HRFNAO consignment: IPAFFS pre-notification and a CHED-D will be required, and physical sampling is possible. That changes the plan: the importer routes the container to a port with a designated entry point able to handle HRFNAO checks, and pads the schedule for possible sampling dwell time.

At origin. The supplier provides the commercial invoice, packing list, and the analytical/sampling documentation required for the contaminant — including the certificate of analysis. The importer checks the goods descriptions match the commodity code they intend to declare. They do not request a phytosanitary certificate or an EHC — neither applies here.

Before arrival. The importer (or their agent) raises the pre-notification in IPAFFS, generating the CHED-D, within the required window ahead of arrival. The description, code, quantity, origin and entry point all match the commercial documents. In parallel, the customs declaration is prepared for CDS against the importer's EORI.

On arrival at the BCP. Documentary check on every consignment. The port health authority reviews the CHED-D and accompanying documents. The consignment is selected for a physical check — an aflatoxin sample is drawn and sent for analysis. The container waits.

Release. The analysis returns within the contaminant tolerance, the CHED-D is finalised as cleared, the customs entry is completed, duty is accounted for, and the goods are released to the manufacturer. Because the importer planned the dwell time in advance, the lab wait cost patience rather than a missed production slot.

Run the same container with a wrong commodity code or a late IPAFFS entry, and the story changes: a query at the documentary stage, a mismatch to resolve, storage accruing on an ambient cargo, and an avoidable hold.

How does the commodity code interact with duty and the control regime?

The commodity code is the hinge. It determines the duty you pay on CDS, and it determines whether the goods fall under the increased-controls regime and therefore need an IPAFFS pre-notification and a CHED-D. One classification decision drives both the customs side and the SPS/contaminant side — which is exactly why a wrong code causes trouble in two places at once.

In-shell and shelled groundnuts classify under different headings, and the right one depends on the actual product. Roasted or otherwise prepared groundnuts can classify differently again. The duty rate attaches to the code, so misclassification can mean over- or under-paying duty — and if you've overpaid because of a wrong code, that's potentially reclaimable, but it's far cheaper to get the code right first time. On the control side, declaring a code that doesn't sit under the aflatoxin regime when the goods genuinely do is a mismatch the authority will catch.

Confirm the code on the GOV.UK Trade Tariff. If the product is processed, blended, or you're genuinely unsure which heading applies, get the classification reviewed — it's the cheapest insurance in the whole process.

Does labelling or anything else apply once the goods are in?

Once cleared, groundnuts moving into food manufacture or onward sale carry the usual GB food law obligations — and allergen rules matter especially here. Peanuts are one of the 14 declarable allergens under GB food information rules (the retained FIC framework), so any packaged product containing them must declare peanuts. That's a downstream concern, not a border one, but worth flagging early if you're importing to repack or sell on rather than to process in bulk.

This is where the import job hands over to the labelling and food-safety job. If you're bringing groundnuts in as an ingredient for your own manufacture, your existing food-safety management covers the onward handling. If you're importing to sell on in consumer packaging, get the label checked against the markets you're selling into before it goes to print.

What's the single biggest cause of a groundnut consignment being delayed?

The most common cause is a mismatch between the commodity code, the goods description and the IPAFFS pre-notification — followed closely by late pre-notification. Both are avoidable upstream. The aflatoxin physical check can also hold a consignment for lab turnaround, but that's a planned-for cost, not an error; the errors are nearly always in classification and timing.

Get the code right, confirm the goods are on the current increased-controls list, raise the CHED-D in IPAFFS before arrival with a description that matches the code, and build dwell time into your plan for possible sampling. Do those four things and the process is orderly. Skip one and you're resolving a problem at the border with storage running on the clock.

Closing

Borders are complicated. We aren't. Groundnuts from Argentina are a textbook HRFNAO import — contaminant-controlled, IPAFFS-pre-notified, CHED-D, and physically sampleable at the BCP — and the whole thing runs smoothly when the commodity code, the pre-notification and the timing line up before the container sails. The rules here change, so always check the current GOV.UK increased-controls guidance for your specific code and origin, and get professional sign-off on the classification where it matters.

Something held, or moving soon? The Falsum Helpdesk triages live customs and SPS issues — support.falsum.co.uk. Tell us the goods and the route — we'll tell you exactly what you need.

FAQ