09 Coffee, tea, mate and spices
The broadest level of the Harmonized System. Pick the heading below that fits your goods, then the six-digit code under it — that last one is what you declare.
Section II, Vegetable Products — plants, vegetables, fruit, nuts, coffee, tea, cereals, seeds and flours.
- 09 Chapter Coffee, tea, mate and spices
- —— Heading Pick one of the 10 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 9 covers coffee, tea, mate and spices: from raw, green coffee beans through roasted and ground, and every common spice from pepper to cinnamon to saffron. Roast state, grind state and caffeine content are the main things that split a product into different six-digit subheadings. Classification tip: Decaffeinated versus caffeinated and roasted versus green are the two splits that most often trip up coffee shipments: confirm both before filing.
10 headings in chapter 09
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 09.01 Coffee, whether or not roasted or decaffeinated; husks and skins; coffee substitutes containing coffee in any proportion 5 codes
- 09.02 Tea 4 codes
- 09.03 Mate 1 code
- 09.04 Pepper of the genus piper; dried or crushed or ground fruits of the genus capsicum or of the genus pimenta 4 codes
- 09.05 Vanilla 2 codes
- 09.06 Cinnamon and cinnamon-tree flowers 3 codes
- 09.07 Cloves (whole fruit, cloves and stems) 2 codes
- 09.08 Nutmeg, mace and cardamoms 6 codes
- 09.09 Seeds of anise, badian, fennel, coriander, cumin, caraway or juniper 6 codes
- 09.10 Ginger, saffron, tumeric (curcuma), thyme, bay leaves, curry and other spices 6 codes
Other chapters in Section II
The wording above is the Harmonized System nomenclature as published by the World Customs Organization, HS 2022 edition. It is a classification reference, not a tariff: it carries no duty rates, and it stops at six digits — the importing country adds its own beyond that.
Classification is decided by the General Rules of Interpretation and the section and chapter notes, and it is the importing country’s customs authority that makes it binding.
Shipping goods from chapter 09? A customs hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving — follow the container or the air waybill from departure to delivery.
Track a shipmentChapter 09 FAQ
Chapter 9 covers coffee, tea, mate and spices: from raw, green coffee beans through roasted and ground, and every common spice from pepper to cinnamon to saffron. Roast state, grind state and caffeine content are the main things that split a product into different six-digit subheadings. Classification tip: Decaffeinated versus caffeinated and roasted versus green are the two splits that most often trip up coffee shipments: confirm both before filing.
Pick the heading below that describes the goods, then the six-digit subheading under it. Six digits is the level the Harmonized System defines and the level customs everywhere recognises; anything beyond that is added by the importing country.
The General Rules of Interpretation, read together with the notes to Section II and to chapter 09. A description that reads right is not enough on its own — the notes routinely pull goods out of the chapter they obviously belong to and put them somewhere else. Where duty or licensing turns on the answer, ask the importing country’s customs authority for a binding ruling.
A wrong or missing code is one of the common reasons customs holds a container, and a hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving. Watch for it in the container tracking app, on the air waybill in the air cargo tracker, or through the tracking API.