What to Bring Home From Montenegro: UK and EU Customs

The safest thing to bring home from Montenegro is wine: a bottle of Vranac costs from €7.30 at the Plantaže winery shop, and within your allowance it will get through any border. Pršut and cheese are another matter. Montenegro is not in the EU, and meat and dairy products from Montenegro cannot be brought into Great Britain or any EU country, whether vacuum-packed or not. At customs they are taken off you and destroyed.

So the plan is simple: eat the ham and cheese while you are here, and pack wine, rakija and honey. Below is what people buy and what it costs, the British and EU allowances side by side, and the few things Montenegro itself will not let you take out.

In short

• Wine: Vranac from the producer from €7.30 a bottle; the aged Reserve is €23.80.
• Pršut, sausage, cheese, kajmak: banned from the UK and the EU, even vacuum-packed, and that includes Croatia on a day trip to Dubrovnik.
• Honey: up to 2 kg into both the UK and the EU.
• Alcohol into the UK, duty-free: 18 litres of still wine and 42 litres of beer, plus 4 litres of spirits or 9 litres of sparkling or fortified wine.
• Tax-free shopping: on purchases over €100 from one shop, where the shop offers it.
• Leaving Montenegro: cash of €10,000 or more must be declared.

What do people bring home from Montenegro?

The National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro suggests looking out for Njeguši pršut and sausage; dried mutton, known as košet and kastradina; the cheeses of Njeguši and Pljevlja, leaf cheese (lisnati sir) and skorup; and mead (medovina), homemade rakija, dried figs and olives.

Seen through the eyes of a customs officer at Heathrow or Dublin, that list falls into three groups:

Group	What	Allowed into the UK and the EU?
Fine within your allowance	wine, rakija, mead, honey	yes
Banned	pršut, sausage, dried meat, cheese, kajmak	no, in any packaging
Unclear	olive oil, dried figs	we found no explicit rule in the official guidance

Montenegrin wine and rakija: what do they cost?

Prices at the Plantaže winery’s own shop on 27 September 2026:

Wine	Price
Vranac Pro Corde	€7.30
Pro Anima Chardonnay & Sauvignon	€7.30
Kratošija	€8
Val, sparkling	€8.50
Crnogorska Malvazija	€9.20
Vranac Barrique	€14.80
Vranac Reserve	€23.80
Stari podrum Vranac	€41
Premijer	€70

Vranac Pro Corde in a gift box costs €9.80, against €7.30 without one. The same producer’s rakija costs €12.90–27 a bottle: Breskva (peach) €12.90, Loza (grape) €16.50, Kruna €18, Prvijenac €18.50 and Muskatna (muscat) €27. The shop does not say how big the bottles are. Homemade rakija is sold at markets and in the villages; we found no reliable prices for it.

Tastings are held in the Šipčanik cellar outside Podgorica, the capital, about 65 kilometres inland from Budva. The cellar is a former underground aircraft hangar. Tastings run daily from 9:00 to 17:00 and last one to two hours; book at least a day ahead, and cancel no later than 48 hours before. Šipčanik fits neatly around a flight from Podgorica: Podgorica airport transfers. Which tastings there are and what to try is in Montenegrin wine and rakija.

Local wine, honey and dried fish are also sold at the small market in Virpazar on Lake Skadar; see Lake Skadar day trip.

Can I take Njeguši pršut and cheese home?

Not to the UK or the EU. Enjoy them here.

Njeguši pršut is salted for about three weeks, pressed for about three more, lightly smoked and then air-dried for around three months; the whole process takes about a year. It costs roughly €20–35 a kilo, and more in tourist shops. Njeguši itself is a village about 900 metres up, on the hairpin road 22 kilometres above Kotor. How to choose a piece is in Njeguši prosciutto and Njeguši.

Cheese. Njeguši cheese is kept in oil; Pljevlja cheese is salty, matured and made from cow’s milk. The others are in Montenegrin cheese.

The shops will slice and vacuum-pack pršut for you while you wait. It still cannot come home with you: meat and cheese from Montenegro are not allowed into the UK or the EU even vacuum-sealed. Eat it here and take honey and wine instead.

You may have read about the rule Britain brought in during 2025 on bringing meat and cheese back from EU countries. That is a separate matter. Montenegro is outside the EU, and meat and dairy from here were not allowed in before that rule either.

UK and EU customs: what can you bring back?

Allowances are per person, for food and drink in your own luggage.

What	Great Britain	EU, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Scandinavia’s EU members and Croatia
Pršut, sausage, cheese, kajmak	not allowed	not allowed
Fish	up to 20 kg	up to 20 kg
Honey	up to 2 kg	up to 2 kg
Fresh fruit and vegetables	most only with a plant health certificate	only with a phytosanitary certificate
Alcohol, duty-free, aged 17 and over	18 litres of still wine and 42 litres of beer, plus 4 litres of spirits or 9 litres of sparkling or fortified wine	4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer, plus 1 litre of spirits or 2 litres of drinks under 22%
Other goods, duty-free	up to £390	€430 by air or sea, €300 by land; €150 for under-15s

Great Britain. Meat and dairy products from Montenegro cannot be brought in. Fish is allowed up to 20 kg; fresh fish must be gutted, and prawns and lobster count towards the limit. Honey is allowed up to 2 kg. Most fresh fruit and vegetables need a plant health certificate; a few, such as bananas, pineapples, coconuts and dates, do not. The alcohol allowance is 18 litres of still wine and 42 litres of beer, plus either 4 litres of spirits over 22% or 9 litres of sparkling wine, fortified wine and other drinks up to 22%. That last part can be split: 2 litres of spirits and 4.5 litres of sparkling wine is half of each. You must be 17 or over. Add 200 cigarettes, and up to £390 of other goods duty-free.

The EU: Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the rest. Meat and dairy products from outside the EU are banned; the only exceptions are baby food and special medical food, up to 2 kg in factory packaging. Anything undeclared is confiscated and destroyed, and you can be fined or even prosecuted. Fish is allowed up to 20 kg and honey up to 2 kg. Fresh fruit and vegetables need a phytosanitary certificate. The alcohol allowance, from age 17, is 1 litre of spirits over 22% or 2 litres of drinks under 22% (sparkling or fortified wine), plus 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer. Other goods: up to €430 by air or sea, €300 by land, and €150 for children under 15.

Croatia and Dubrovnik. Croatia is in the EU, so the same rule applies at its border. Pršut and cheese in the car or in your bag on a day trip to Dubrovnik count as an import into the EU, so buy them after the trip, not before. How the trip works is in driving to Dubrovnik.

Flying home via another country. The rules that apply are those of the country where you go through customs. If you leave the airport on a stopover, say a night in an EU city, the EU’s rules apply there first, and Britain’s when you land.

Norway, Switzerland and elsewhere. They set their own allowances. Check with your own customs service before you buy.

What won’t Montenegro let you take out?

Cash of €10,000 or more has to be declared when you leave. Cultural goods, such as antiques, can only leave the country with a permit from Montenegro’s Ministry of Culture: if you are buying something old, ask the seller for the paperwork.

Can you claim the VAT back?

Yes, if you spend more than €100 with a single retailer and do not hold a Montenegrin residence permit. The shop gives you a PDV-PP form, customs stamps it as you leave, and the shop itself refunds the VAT, within six months of the purchase. It only works where the shop offers the service; we found it at electronics chains.

How to get it all home in one piece

• Pack wine, rakija, honey and oil in your hold luggage, wrapped in clothes: liquids in the cabin are limited by airport security rules.
• Allowances are per person, and the alcohol allowance is for adults only.
• Keep the PDV-PP form to hand: it has to be stamped as you leave.

Getting to the airport

Budva is 20 kilometres from Tivat airport, 25–30 minutes without traffic. A transfer to Tivat airport costs from €58 per car from Budva and from €44 from Kotor; from Budva to Podgorica airport it is from €73. Other ways of getting there are in Tivat airport: getting to Budva and Kotor, and booking is on the airport transfers page. Services are provided by independent companies; you book and pay directly with them.

Prices and allowances checked in September 2026. Sources: Plantaže winery, National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro, Customs Administration of Montenegro, the EU’s Your Europe portal and the European Commission’s food safety pages, GOV.UK.