2103.20 Sauces; tomato ketchup and other tomato sauces
A full HS code. These six digits are what goes on a customs declaration, and they mean the same thing in every country that uses the Harmonized System.
Section IV, Foodstuffs, Beverages & Tobacco — prepared food and drink — sugar, cocoa, beverages, spirits, vinegar and tobacco.
- 21 Chapter Miscellaneous edible preparations
- 03 Heading Sauces and preparations therefor; mixed condiments and mixed seasonings, mustard flour and meal and prepared mustard
- 20 Subheading Sauces; tomato ketchup and other tomato sauces
Chapter 21 is a catch-all for miscellaneous edible preparations that don't fit neatly elsewhere: sauces, soups, yeast, food supplements, ice cream and flavoured extracts. It's a common landing spot for newer packaged-food products that blend ingredients from multiple other food chapters. Classification tip: Composite food products (a sauce with meat, a supplement with pharmaceutical-grade ingredients) can straddle this chapter and chapter 16 or chapter 30: classify by the ingredient that gives the product its essential character, not by marketing name.
All of chapter 21Other codes under 21.03
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 under 2103.20? A customs hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving — follow the container or the air waybill from departure to delivery.
Track a shipment2103.20 FAQ
2103.20 covers sauces; tomato ketchup and other tomato sauces. It sits under heading 21.03 (sauces and preparations therefor; mixed condiments and mixed seasonings, mustard flour and meal and prepared mustard) in chapter 21, Section IV of the Harmonized System.
It is the international part of it. Six digits are the same in every country that applies the Harmonized System; the importing country then extends them to eight or ten for its own tariff and statistics. Declare 2103.20 plus whatever national digits the destination’s tariff schedule adds to it.
The General Rules of Interpretation, read together with the notes to Section IV and to chapter 21. 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.