Customs agent in El Hierro

Why the file is closed before loading

On a larger island, a missing document costs a day at the terminal. In El Hierro, it costs a connection, and a connection can be a week. That's why with this island we work backwards from the usual approach: the complete file —valued inventory, sworn statement or invoice, packing list, identified tariff item— has to be closed before the cargo leaves the Peninsula.

It's not our red tape: it's the only way for the DUA to be cleared the same day upon arrival in Tenerife and the cargo to connect with the corresponding ferry. If the file is completed on the fly, the foreseeable result is that the cargo arrives in Tenerife and watches the ship sail away.

The procedure: two DUAs and two duties

The Canary Islands are within the EU's customs territory but outside the common VAT territory. A shipment from the Peninsula to El Hierro does not pay tariffs but crosses a fiscal border: export DUA at the Peninsula port and import DUA in the Canary Islands, with settlement of IGIC and, if the tariff item is subject, AIEM.

The operation is exempt from VAT at origin, and the cleared DUA is proof to the AEAT. Since the cargo transships, you decide whether it's convenient to clear customs at Santa Cruz de Tenerife and transship, or move the cargo under transit regime and clear it at La Estaca. The full framework is in our guide on customs between the Canary Islands and the Peninsula.

What we handle for the island

• Moves and personal effects, with exemption for documented change of residence: sworn statement, valued inventory at customs value, and proof of new residence in Valverde, Frontera or El Pinar.
• Technical and energy equipment. El Hierro has been an energy self-sufficiency laboratory for years, and that brings electrical materials, pumps, measurement equipment and spare parts, with precise tariff classification and AIEM according to the item.
• Supply to retail, hospitality and rural accommodation, where almost all supplies enter through customs.
• Construction and renovation materials, with AIEM identified before loading.
• Vehicles, with their DUA and island registration procedures.
• Export to the Peninsula, with exit DUA and VAT upon entry on the other side except where exempted.

The Tenerife warehouse as a safeguard

With so few connections, the normal scenario is not cargo arriving and leaving the same day: it's cargo arriving in Tenerife and having to wait. The useful question is where it waits.

At the port terminal, accruing storage from discharge, it's the expensive option. At our warehouse in Tenerife, which is where everything from the western islands transships, it costs much less and also allows reorganizing the cargo or consolidating it with another shipment if that speeds up the connection. It's the underlying reason why having a base on the transshipment island matters more in El Hierro than in any other destination.

How cargo arrives in El Hierro

To the Peninsula transit you have to add the inter-island connection from Tenerife, which here is the decisive leg:

The inter-island connection to El Hierro has the widest range in the archipelago, and that's why we give the timeframe with a margin instead of a nice number we can't meet. We confirm the specific departure before giving a delivery date.