A guide to Defra trade codes and classifications
Updated 9 April 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open 바카라 사이트 Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at /government/statistics/food-statistics-pocketbook/a-guide-to-defra-trade-codes-and-classifications
1. A guide to Defra trade codes and classifications.
1.1 Origins:
The 바카라 사이트˜FFD바카라 사이트™ (Food, Feed & Drink) system of code groupings has been in existence for many years. It was created so that rather than relying on detailed knowledge of hundreds of individual commodity codes, press and policy teams within Defra had access to trade data in manageable and meaningful chunks. The native HMRC code descriptions are largely technical in content and generally unhelpful in response to the majority of our communications.
It provides a consistent set of commonly used food, feed and drink sectors, and is used as the benchmark for UK exports in outputs such as AUK, annual trade summaries, PQ바카라 사이트™s etc.
In total, there are over 4,500 individual commodity codes included in 바카라 사이트˜FFD바카라 사이트™, which belong to the following set of 2-digit SITC Divisions:
- 01 - Meat And Meat Preparations
- 02 - Dairy Products And Birds바카라 사이트™ Eggs
- 03 - Fish And Fish Preparations
- 04 - Cereals And Cereal Preparations
- 05 - Vegetables And Fruit
- 06 - Sugars, Sugar Preparations And Honey
- 07 - Coffee, Tea, Cocoa, Spices Etc.
- 08 - Feeding Stuff For Animals (Excluding Unmilled Cereals)
- 09 - Miscellaneous Edible Products
- 11 - Beverages
- 22 - Oil Seeds And Oleaginous Fruits
- 41/42/43 바카라 사이트“ Oils And Fats
바카라 사이트˜FFD바카라 사이트™ and 바카라 사이트˜agri-food바카라 사이트™ are largely interchangeable terms, and essentially mean the same thing. Sometimes our briefings refer to 바카라 사이트˜food & drink바카라 사이트™, although in reality this still relates to 바카라 사이트˜food, feed & drink바카라 사이트™, it is however, more media friendly.
1.2 Post-Referendum expansion:
The increased focus on trade analysis within Defra and across Whitehall brought with it a requirement to analyse trade data for commodities that were outside the original 바카라 사이트˜FFD바카라 사이트™ set of codes. The 바카라 사이트˜FFD+바카라 사이트™ system is a simple extension of 바카라 사이트˜FFD바카라 사이트™, and includes non-food, feed & drink items such as: live animals, fertilisers, chemicals and farm machinery.
A new classification system called 바카라 사이트˜Brigades바카라 사이트™ was recently introduced. There are three levels of detail, starting with: 바카라 사이트˜Crops, Food Industry, Horticulture, Inedible and Livestock & Livestock Products바카라 사이트™ at 바카라 사이트˜Brigade 1바카라 사이트™ level. The new groups were designed to provide more detailed analysis than the original 바카라 사이트˜FFD바카라 사이트™ series could provide, and at 바카라 사이트˜Brigade 2 & 3바카라 사이트™ level, allow much more detailed analysis of trade data while still providing a sensible level of aggregation.
1.3 Future uses:
Codes and descriptions are also available for the following systems:
- 8-digit CN Commodity Code
- 2-digit 바카라 사이트˜Division바카라 사이트™ and 5-digit 바카라 사이트˜SITC바카라 사이트™
- HS 2/4/6
Official codes and descriptions are subject to annual updates and additions. Further information is available here:
There are additional fields for identifying the following aspects:
- Indigeneity 바카라 사이트“ whether a product can be grown in the UK on a commercially viable level.
- Degree of Processing 바카라 사이트“ unprocessed, lightly or highly processed.
The last two fields are owned by Defra, and were allocated by the Food & Trade Statistics team, who are responsible for maintaining the table of codes and descriptions.
1.4 Contacts for further information:
If you require any bespoke code groupings for ad-hoc analysis, please contact:
EU & International Trade
trade-stats@defra.gov.uk