12 Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits; miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit, industrial or medicinal plants; straw and fodder
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.
- 12 Chapter Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits; miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit, industrial or medicinal plants; straw and fodder
- —— Heading Pick one of the 14 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 12 covers oil seeds and oleaginous fruits (soybeans, sunflower seed, rapeseed, groundnuts), plus miscellaneous grains, seeds, industrial or medicinal plants, straw and animal fodder. It's an agricultural-input chapter feeding into vegetable oil (chapter 15) and animal feed supply chains. Classification tip: Whether seed is intended for sowing versus crushing for oil can change both the applicable code and any phytosanitary/GMO documentation required, so confirm end-use before filing.
14 headings in chapter 12
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 12.01 Soya beans, whether or not broken 2 codes
- 12.02 Ground-nuts; not roasted or otherwise cooked, whether or not shelled or broken 3 codes
- 12.03 Copra 1 code
- 12.04 Oil seeds; linseed, whether or not broken 1 code
- 12.05 Rape or colza seeds; whether or not broken 2 codes
- 12.06 Sunflower seeds; whether or not broken 1 code
- 12.07 Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, n.e.c. in chapter 12; whether or not broken 10 codes
- 12.08 Flours and meals of oil seeds or oleaginous fruits; other than those of mustard 2 codes
- 12.09 Seeds, fruit and spores; of a kind used for sowing 10 codes
- 12.10 Hop cones, fresh or dried, whether or not ground, powdered or in the form of pellets; lupulin 2 codes
- 12.11 Plants and parts of plants (including seeds and fruits), of a kind used primarily in perfumery, in pharmacy or for insecticidal, fungicidal or similar purposes, fresh, chilled, frozen or dried, whether or not cut, crushed or powdered 6 codes
- 12.12 Locust beans, seaweeds and other algae, sugar beet, sugar cane, fresh, chilled, frozen or dried, whether or not ground; fruit stones, kernels and other vegetable products (including unroasted chicory roots) used primarily for human consumption, n.e.c. 7 codes
- 12.13 Cereal straw and husks, unprepared; whether or not chopped, ground, pressed or in the form of pellets 1 code
- 12.14 Swedes, mangolds, fodder roots, hay, lucerne (alfalfa), clover, sainfoin, forage kale, lupines, vetches and similar forage products, whether or not in the form of pellets 2 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 12? 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 12 FAQ
Chapter 12 covers oil seeds and oleaginous fruits (soybeans, sunflower seed, rapeseed, groundnuts), plus miscellaneous grains, seeds, industrial or medicinal plants, straw and animal fodder. It's an agricultural-input chapter feeding into vegetable oil (chapter 15) and animal feed supply chains. Classification tip: Whether seed is intended for sowing versus crushing for oil can change both the applicable code and any phytosanitary/GMO documentation required, so confirm end-use 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 12. 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.