IFZA activity register
Trade licence activities in IFZA
The short answer
International Free Zone Authority (IFZA) files 437 business activities under its Trade classification, out of 824 activities on its register as captured on 25 August 2026. Each activity is a named register entry, and a licence is built from the specific entries that match what the business actually does. This page explains the family and what changes the answer; the exact entries for your business, the combination they form, and the current costs come from an adviser-reviewed activity check.
This page explains one licence family on the IFZA register: what the authority groups under Trade, what that kind of licence is structured for, and the facts that decide whether it fits. It is a directory of the authority's own classification, not a ranking and not a promotion.
Activities are shown by name, which is how you will recognise your own work in them. The authority's activity codes are not published here — the code is the filing reference, and which codes your business needs, in what combination, is the output of the activity check rather than something to copy off a page.
Use this to work out whether the work you actually do has a home in this family — and read the zone's full profile for how IFZA operates, who it suits, and who it does not.
What the Trade classification covers
Activities in this family describe buying, selling, importing, exporting, and distributing physical goods. Each register entry names a product category — spare parts, building materials, foodstuffs, equipment — and the licence covers the named category, not goods in general.
That specificity is the point of the register. A licence that says one product category does not quietly cover another, and the description on the licence is what a bank, a customs officer, or a counterparty reads first.
What a trade licence here is structured for
A licence built from this family suits a business whose revenue comes from goods changing hands: import and re-export, wholesale, distribution, or online retail of physical products.
The activity wording should match what you will actually invoice for. Where your product range spans several register categories, the honest licence carries several activities — leaving one off to simplify the application is the mistake that surfaces later at the bank or at renewal.
From the register
Activities in this family, by name
A sample of the 437 activities IFZA files under Trade, exactly as the register names them. Activity names are the authority's own wording and are shown in English in every language; register codes are not published.
- General Trading
- Accounting & Office Machinery Rental
- Acids & Alkalines Trading
- Adhesives Trading
- Advertising Requisites Trading
- Agarwood & Incense Trading
- Agricultural Equipment & Accessories Trading
- Agricultural Equipment & Machinery Spare Parts Trading
- Agricultural Pesticides Trading Abroad
- Agricultural Tractors & Machinery Trading
- Air-Condition Trading
- Air-Condition, Refrigeration Spare Parts Trading
- Aircraft Scrap & Used Spare Parts Trading
- Aircraft Spare Parts & Components Trading
- Airline Inflight Products Trading
- Airport Equipment Trading
- Alternative Energy Equipment and Accessories Trading
- Animal & Birds Feed Trading
- Animal & Poultry Farms Equipment Trading
- Animal fodder supplements trading
- Animals And Birds Requisites Trading
- Antennas Trading
- Aquarium & Display Cases Trading
- Aquatic & live Animals Trading
- Arabwear Trading
- Artificial Flowers & Plants Trading
- Audio Recorded Media Distribution
- Audio Recorded Media Trading
- Audio-visual, Recording Equipment & Accessories Trading
- Authentic Antiques, Artefacts & Artworks Trading
What this page does not decide
Decision factors
What changes the answer
Two businesses that describe themselves the same way in a sentence can need different entries, different approvals, and a different jurisdiction altogether. These are the facts that move the answer for a trade licence — worth settling before you apply, whoever you apply through.
- Which product categories you will actually invoice for, and how many register entries that spans.
- Whether any of those goods need a ministry or sector approval alongside the licence.
- Whether the goods physically enter the UAE, and whether they clear customs onshore or stay inside the zone.
- Whether you sell to UAE customers, to buyers abroad, or both — distribution onshore and free-zone re-export are different permissions.
- Whether you need storage, and whether that means warehouse space, a bonded facility, or nothing at all.
- How many people the operation has to sponsor, because premises and visa allocation move together.
Where this family is a strong fit
- You buy and sell physical goods and can name the product categories involved.
- Your invoices will describe the goods the licence describes.
- You have checked whether any of your goods need a regulator's approval before licensing.
Where it is the wrong family
- You will make, process, or assemble the goods yourself — production belongs to an industrial family, not a trading one.
- The money is really a fee for advice, design, or management and the goods are incidental to it.
- You are relying on a broad-sounding entry to cover a product category you have not named.
- The goods are controlled — food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, chemicals, telecoms equipment — and the plan treats the licence as permission to trade them.
About this listing
Questions
Frequently asked
- How many Trade activities does IFZA have?
- As captured on 25 August 2026, the IFZA register files 437 activities under its Trade classification, out of 824 activities on the register in total. Registers are living documents, so the current count is always the authority's.
- Is my activity covered if it is not in the sample list?
- Possibly — this page shows a sample, not the full register. An adviser checks your specific activity against the authority's live list, which is the only check that counts, and also confirms whether it needs any external regulator's approval.
- Why are the activity codes not shown?
- Because a code is a filing reference, not an explanation. The name tells you whether the register has a home for your work, which is what this page is for. The code only becomes useful once someone has checked your actual business against the authority's live list, decided which entries apply and which combination they may sit in, and confirmed any external approval — and that is the assessment, not a directory listing. Publishing a code without that check is how businesses end up licensed for something adjacent to what they do.
- Can one licence at IFZA carry several of these activities?
- How many activities a licence carries, and whether families can be combined, is set by the authority's own packaging rules, which change. We confirm the current position in writing with the authority for your specific activity set rather than publishing rules that may be out of date.
- What does a trade licence at IFZA cost?
- The authority sets and quotes the fees, and packages and promotions change. Current figures are confirmed within your adviser-reviewed route comparison, checked with the authority for your exact activity set, visa requirement, and workspace before you commit.
Check where this activity can be licensed
Tell us what the business actually does, who it sells to, and who it needs to sponsor. An adviser checks it against the authorities' live lists, confirms the exact register entries and combination that cover it, flags any external approval, and tells you whether another jurisdiction describes it better — with the current material costs for the routes worth comparing.
This page is general information about UAE business setup, not legal, tax, immigration, or banking advice. Rules, fees, permitted activities, and bank policies can change. Final eligibility depends on your facts and the applicable rules at the time of application.