Fifty-one agricultural and food tariff lines became more expensive to import into Saudi Arabia on 26 June 2026. Duty rates on live animals, meat, dairy, seafood and processed foods rose to between 5 and 15 percent, up from a standard 5 percent most-favoured-nation rate on many of the affected items, according to EY Global Tax News. The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority framed the move as protecting domestic agricultural production and advancing Vision 2030 food security goals.
A Six-Year Habit, Not a One-Off
This is the third broad food-tariff increase in six years. Each has been justified the same way, as protection and stimulus for local production, and each has stayed within Saudi Arabia's WTO bound-tariff ceilings. The 2026 revision covers fewer lines and a lower ceiling than its two predecessors, but it is the same instrument, used a third time.
| Increase | Instrument (effective date) | Scope | New duty range | Stated rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2020 | Council of Ministers decision (20 June 2020) | Broad, economy-wide: food, chemicals, building materials, vehicles and more | 5% up to 25% | Raise non-oil revenue; protect local production |
| June 2022 | Ministerial Decree No. 59334 (12 June 2022) | 99 products across 17 HS chapters: foodstuffs, beverages, industrial and agricultural goods | 5.5% to 25% | Stimulate and protect local industries and agricultural products |
| June 2026 | ZATCA schedule, Official Gazette (26 June 2026) | 51 tariff lines across 8 HS chapters: live animals, meat, fish, dairy, plants, fruits, food preparations | 5% to 15% | Protect and promote local agricultural products |
What's Being Protected
The 2026 schedule raises duty on 51 tariff lines drawn from eight chapters of the Harmonized System. The affected categories map onto the products where the Kingdom is building domestic capacity: livestock, poultry, red meat, farmed fish, dairy, ornamental flowers and select fruits. The table below groups the protected categories and the new most-favoured-nation rates that now apply.
| HS chapter | Category | Example products | New MFN duty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Live animals | Pure-bred breeding cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats; live poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guinea fowls); broiler and parent-stock chickens | 5–15% |
| 02 | Meat and edible offal | Fresh, chilled and frozen bovine, ovine and lamb carcasses, half-carcasses and bone-in / boneless cuts | 5–7% |
| 03 | Fish and crustaceans | Trout, Atlantic and Danube salmon, cold-water shrimps and prawns | 6–12% |
| 04 | Dairy and eggs | Blue-veined and other cheeses; shell eggs | 6–10% |
| 06 | Live plants and cut flowers | Grafted and non-grafted roses | 15% |
| 08 & 20 | Fresh and preserved fruits | Strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, potatoes | 6–15% |
| 16 & 20 | Food preparations | Fish preparations; date molasses | 8–12% |
Who Actually Pays
The cost lands on importers. Because the amended rates apply to the most-favoured-nation baseline, any shipment that does not qualify for preferential origin now clears at 5 to 15 percent rather than the standard 5 percent, and the importer absorbs the difference from the moment of clearance. Goods of GCC origin remain duty-free under the Customs Union. Goods from countries holding a free-trade agreement with the GCC, among them the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, Singapore and the EFTA states, keep their preferential treatment, provided the importer holds a valid certificate of origin and meets the rules of origin. Everyone else pays more.
Domestic producers gain a structural price advantage without changing anything about how they operate: their imported competitors landed cost rises while their own does not. None of the three decrees, in 2020, 2022 or 2026, names a company that benefits; each cites only the protection of local industry and agriculture. That is standard for a tariff schedule, but it means the gains accrue, on the record of the schedule rather than any named grant, to whichever domestic producers hold scale in the categories now carrying higher duty.
“None of the three decrees, in 2020, 2022 or 2026, names a company that benefits.”
Three increases in six years is not an emergency measure. It is policy. The question worth asking is not whether Vision 2030's food security goal justifies raising the cost of imported chicken and cheese. It is who decided that raising it, rather than lowering the cost of producing it domestically, was the faster path there.
Signal source: EY Global Tax News, 21 July 2026.