Sending food and pickles abroad

We accept homemade food

Sealed homemade food goes. Vegetarian pickles — mango, lemon, garlic, puli inji — Nendran and banana chips, tapioca and jackfruit chips, murukku, achappam, kuzhalappam, mixture, pakkavada, pappadam, sharkara varatti, chammanthi podi, idli and dosa podi, sambar and curry powders, dry Malabar spices, tea and coffee powder. That is most of a Kerala home-food business, and it is what we send out most often.

Seal it properly, declare it honestly, and tell us what is in it. An ingredients list and a date on the pack are worth adding, but they are not a condition of us taking it.

When you open a business account we call you, and that call is where we go through what you make and which countries it suits. You will not be guessing from a web page.

What is refused outright

• Meat and poultry in any form on most lanes — beef pickle is the one people are genuinely surprised by, and meat masala with real meat content counts.
• Fish and prawn pickle beyond small personal amounts.
• Alcohol, including food cooked with it, and anything containing poppy seeds.
• Fresh food, fruit, vegetables, seeds and plant material without a permit.

What travels, with care

Declare contents item by item. A few destinations are stricter than the rest — the page for the country you are sending to lists exactly what that lane admits and refuses, so check it before you promise a date.

Coconut oil and liquid pickles leak. They are allowed, but tell us on the booking and we pack them separately — a leaked jar does not just lose itself, it ruins the textiles next to it.

Destination rules worth knowing before you sell

Australia and New Zealand run some of the strictest biosecurity controls anywhere, and food, plant, wood and animal products are heavily restricted and often refused. Great Britain does not permit personal imports of meat or dairy from India. Canada controls food and plant items through the CFIA. Food to the USA needs an FDA Prior Notice, which we file from the details you give us.

The two ways a parcel leaves here

Everything on this page turns on which of these you are, so it is worth settling first. There are two, and we run both.

If your business is registered as an exporter

You have a GSTIN, an IEC and an AD code. Your parcel ships as your export: it goes under your own IEC, and you authorise our carrier to file the shipping bill (CSB-V) on your behalf. You pay the freight, and the commercial invoice carries your business.

If your business is not registered as an exporter

We call this the simple route, and it is the one most Instagram sellers, boutiques and small shops start on. On this route you do not export at all. Your customer abroad receives the parcel as their own, under our personal forwarding terms — the same terms any individual uses to send their own belongings home. You book the shipment here, put your own bill for the order inside the parcel, and send it to our warehouse. We weigh it, photograph it, and send your customer a link to pay the shipping. As soon as they pay, it goes, and they get tracking in your name.

Where to start

Open a business account and tell us what you sell. We call every new business on WhatsApp within a working day, usually to settle exactly the question this page is about, and you are on the right route before your first parcel moves.