Guidance

A Guide to Defra Trade Codes and Classifications

Published 10 July 2026

1. Origins:

The ‘FFD’ (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 groups. The native HMRC code descriptions are largely technical in content and generally unhelpful in response to the majority of our communications.

FFD provides a consistent set of commonly used food, feed and drink commodities, and is used as the benchmark for UK exports in outputs such as Agriculture in the United Kingdom, annual trade summaries, Parliamentary Questions etc.

In total there are over 4,600 individual commodity codes included in ‘FFD’ (including historical and active codes) which belong to the following set of 2-digit SITC Divisions

• 01 - Meat And Meat Preparations

• 02 - Dairy Products and Birds’ 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 – Oils and Fats

‘Food, Feed and Drink’ and ‘agri-food’ are largely interchangeable terms and essentially mean the same thing.

2. Post-Referendum expansion:

An increased focus on trade analysis brought with it a requirement to analyse trade data for commodities that were outside the original ‘FFD’ set of codes. The ‘FFD+’ system is a simple extension of ‘FFD’, and includes non-food, feed & drink items such as live animals, fertilisers, chemicals and farm machinery.

A new classification system called ‘Brigades’ was also introduced. There are three levels of detail, starting with: ‘Crops, Food Industry, Horticulture, Inedible and Livestock & Livestock Products’ at ‘Brigade 1’ level. The new groups were designed to allow more detailed analysis than the original ‘FFD’ series could provide, while still providing a sensible level of aggregation.

The table below contains the full grouping of commodity codes to the FFD classification. Please note that the table contains historical commodity codes used in the FFD classification, meaning not all of the codes are currently active. These codes are included to ensure completeness. Please note that the table does not include the full UK trade classification.

Commodity code mapping

Codes and descriptions are also available for the following systems:

• HS 2/4/6 codes

• 8-digit CN Commodity Code

• 2-digit ‘Division’ and 5-digit ‘SITC’

Official codes and descriptions are subject to annual updates and additions. Further information is available here: Help with classifying goods - UK Trade Info

There are additional fields for identifying the following aspects

• Indigeneity – whether a product can be grown in the UK on a commercially viable level.

• Degree of Processing – unprocessed, lightly or highly processed.

The last two fields are owned and allocated by Defra.

3. Contacts for further information:

The EUIT Trade statistics team are responsible for maintaining the table of codes and descriptions. If you require further information, please contact:

EU & International Trade 

Email: trade-stats@defra.gov.uk