Dear all,

Can I legally import kitchen knives into U.K.?? As I am planning to sell them in the shop! Also do I need a licence to sell them??

Hi Fai0616,

Welcome to Wholesale Forum

There is quite some controversy around the importation and resale of kitchen knives. It has been made very difficult, if not impossible, to import illegal knives and other weapons into the UK, but ever since, criminals seem to take to the streets using regular kitchen knives. Because of this, the UK government is constantly trying to tighten the laws around the importation and resale of regular kitchen knives.

• Importation of knives into the UK:

In "The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) order 1988" it is stated that prohibited from importation into the UK are the following types of knives:

- Daggers
- Butterfly knives
- Sword canes
- Gravity knives (similar to flick knives)
- Knuckle dusters (inc. knives and other weapons with knuckle duster style handles)
- Throwing stars (with 3 or more spikes) and some martial arts equipment

For a complete list of all the items prohibited from importation into the UK, have a look at the following link: Criminal Justice Act 1988

Regular kitchen knives can legally be imported into the UK. To fill out all the customs forms correctly you need to have the correct commodity codes of the products you are importing, you can find the commodity codes for your imports using the UK tariff which can be found on UK Trade Tariff | Business Link. The commodity codes for knives can be found here: Heading | Business Link

For more information about how to find the commodity codes for your imports you can read the following thread:

- Commodity codes, duty rate and VAT - Importing drinks from Thailand into the UK

For your imports the current duty rate as of the time of this post is 8.5% on knives and current import VAT is 20%.

• Reselling knives in the UK:

You can resell these knives without a special license, but on the resale of these knives there is an age restriction. You can not legally sell a knife to anyone younger then 18 years. Further, all the types of knives described in The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) order 1988 may not be resold to the public.

Note that regular kitchen knives can not be resold on eBay. Have a look at: Weapons and Knives Scroll down to "Knives" --> "Not allowed"

If you are planning to resell these knives in a brick and mortar (Physical store) then you can safely import them to the UK.

If you are interested in finding verified suppliers of knives from the UK, EU and the rest of the world, then we suggest using eSources, Wholesale Deals and Worldwide Brands. They are the largest trade directories of verified wholesale suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and drop shippers.

Have a look at the results below:

UK suppliers of kitchen knives
- UK Kitchen Knives Supplier Search
- Knives and Cutting Blades Wholesale Suppliers in UK - Wholesale Knife & Cutting Blade Directory

EU suppliers of kitchen knives
- EU Kitchen Knives Supplier Search
- EU Knives and Cutting Blades Wholesale Suppliers - Wholesale Knife & Cutting Blade Directory

Hope this helps