Home › Prohibited items › Gulf / GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain)

Shipping to Gulf / GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain): what is not allowed

The GCC countries share strict religious and cultural import rules. Alcohol, pork, and material offensive to Islam are prohibited across the region.

Not accepted for Gulf / GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain)

Alcohol and pork products
Non-Islamic religious items, idols, and statues
Materials offensive to Islam, and gambling items
Pornographic and politically sensitive material
Narcotics and controlled substances
E-cigarettes and vaping products (restricted or banned in several states)

Allowed, with conditions

Medicines — with a prescription; controlled medicines may need health-authority approval (e.g. UAE Ministry of Health, Saudi SFDA)
Food — packaged, sealed, and halal; declare contents
Cosmetics and supplements — declare
Printed religious material — limited personal quantities

Customs duty is typically around 5% of value across the GCC.

Declare medicines and contents accurately.

Commercial quantities may need conformity certification (e.g. Saudi SABER/SASO).

Indian and Kerala food to the Gulf, item by item

Customs does not care whether food is Indian. It cares about three things: animal origin — meat, fish, dairy, egg; plant and seed material — raw grain, seeds, nuts, fresh produce; and everything else, sealed and commercially packaged, which is broadly fine when it is declared accurately. Almost every Kerala snack sits in the third group. Almost every refusal sits in the first two.

Usually fine, sealed and declared

Nendran and banana chips, tapioca chips, jackfruit chips
Murukku, achappam, kuzhalappam, mixture, pakkavada
Sharkara varatti and jaggery-coated snacks
Pappadam
Kerala halwa and commercially packaged sweets with no dairy
Vegetarian pickles — mango, lemon, garlic, puli inji
Chammanthi podi, idli and dosa podi, sambar and curry powders, masala
Cardamom, black pepper, cloves and other dry Malabar spices
Tea and coffee powder

Send with care

Anything homemade, loose-packed or relabelled
Payasam, halwa and dessert mixes, which often contain milk powder and are then treated as dairy rather than as a snack
Matta rice and any raw grain, pulse, seed or raw nut — this is plant material, not groceries, and it is judged as such
Coconut oil and liquid pickles, which are allowed but leak; tell us on the pre-alert so we pack them separately
Anything with a fat, wax or jaggery base in summer — heat, not customs, is what spoils a Gulf food parcel
Poppy seeds and poppy-seed products, which are treated far more seriously here than elsewhere

Do not send to the Gulf

Pork and pork-derived products of any kind
Alcohol, including food cooked with it, and anything containing poppy seeds
Fresh fruit, vegetables and plants

The Gulf is the most permissive of our destinations for this cluster, and also the one where the rule is religious as well as agricultural: pork is absolutely barred, and meat generally needs to be halal-certified to clear comfortably. Sealed snacks, pickles, podis, spices, tea and jaggery move freely. The real enemy on this route is heat rather than customs — jaggery-coated snacks, halwa and anything with a fat or wax base soften in a box on a Gulf tarmac in July, so order those in the cooler months or tell us and we pack for it.

Quick answers: shipping from India to the Gulf

What can I not send from India to the Gulf?

The Gulf does not accept: alcohol and pork products; non-Islamic religious items, idols, and statues; materials offensive to Islam, and gambling items; pornographic and politically sensitive material; narcotics and controlled substances; e-cigarettes and vaping products (restricted or banned in several states). On every route, we also cannot carry anything with a battery, mobile phones and laptops, real gold, silver or diamond jewellery, or anything flammable or pressurised such as perfume, aerosols and nail polish.

Can I send medicines from India to the Gulf?

Yes, within limits: medicines — with a prescription; controlled medicines may need health-authority approval (e.g. UAE Ministry of Health, Saudi SFDA). Ask us before you order anything controlled.

Can I send Indian food to the Gulf?

Sealed, commercially packaged food usually goes, declared accurately: nendran and banana chips, tapioca chips, jackfruit chips; murukku, achappam, kuzhalappam, mixture, pakkavada; sharkara varatti and jaggery-coated snacks. Do not send: pork and pork-derived products of any kind; alcohol, including food cooked with it, and anything containing poppy seeds.

Will I pay customs duty or tax in the Gulf?

Customs duty is typically around 5% of value across the GCC.

Never accepted, wherever you are

These are refused by the airlines, by Indian export rules or by us, so they cannot leave our warehouse for any destination.

Prohibited, restricted and dangerous goods, in one line each. Prohibited means it cannot be sent at all. Restricted means it can travel, but only under conditions your country sets, such as a personal quantity, a prescription or a declaration; those are listed under each destination. Dangerous goods are what airlines treat as a hazard on board: anything flammable, corrosive or pressurised. We also cannot ship anything with a battery, or anything that burns, such as agarbatti and camphor.

Cash, currency, cheques, bullion, and loose precious stones
Narcotics, illegal drugs, and psychotropic substances
Firearms, ammunition, explosives, fireworks, and weapons (including replicas)
Anything with a battery, including power banks, battery-operated toys and watches
Mobile phones and laptops
Real gold, silver and diamond jewellery
Flammable, corrosive, or pressurised goods — perfumes/deodorant sprays, aerosols, nail polish and remover, paints, thinners, fuel, gas cylinders, lighters, and matches
Anything that burns: agarbatti (incense sticks), dhoop, camphor, sambrani and candles
Live animals, plants, seeds, soil, and products of endangered species (CITES)
Pornographic, obscene, or seditious material
Counterfeit goods and pirated media
Human remains, biological samples, and infectious substances
Radioactive and toxic substances

Medicines and supplements are the one thing to check before you order. They are not banned — almost every destination lets a personal quantity through in its original packaging with a copy of the prescription. What changes from country to country is how much counts as personal, whose name the prescription has to be in, and which ingredients need clearance from that country's health authority first.

The rule for the Gulf is under Allowed, with conditions above. Controlled and psychotropic medicines are a separate case: several countries want their own health authority to clear the parcel first, so check with us before you order rather than after it arrives with us.

If you are not sure about something, ask on WhatsApp before you order it.

The same list, talked through

Three and a half minutes on what cannot leave India, what your own country will not let in, and the things that travel perfectly well once the paperwork is right.