Every week somebody asks us what documents are needed to export food from India, and the honest answer is that the question contains a hidden fork. Some of what you need is a registration you obtain once, which takes weeks and involves government portals. The rest is paperwork generated for each container, which takes days and involves your bank, your inspector and your freight forwarder. Mixing them up leads to a confirmed order and a supplier who cannot ship.
This is the full picture, written from the Indian export side but organised so that a buyer abroad can read it and know what to ask for. If you are the buyer, section by section this tells you which documents actually mean something and which ones people request out of habit.
Part one: registrations you obtain once
These are the standing permissions. Get them wrong or let them lapse and nothing ships, no matter how good the order is.
| Registration | Issued by | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Importer Exporter Code (IEC) | Directorate General of Foreign Trade | The ten digit code, based on PAN, without which you cannot file a shipping bill. This is the front door. |
| GST registration | GST authorities | Required to invoice. Exports are zero rated, and a Letter of Undertaking lets you export without paying IGST upfront rather than paying and claiming a refund. |
| FSSAI licence | Food Safety and Standards Authority of India | A Central licence is what an exporter needs. State licences do not cover export activity. |
| RCMC | The relevant Export Promotion Council or commodity board | Registration cum Membership Certificate. Needed to access export benefits and often requested by buyers as evidence of standing. |
| AD code registration | Your bank, registered at each port | The authorised dealer code that links your shipping bill to the bank account that will receive payment. Port by port. |
| ICEGATE registration | Indian Customs | The portal through which shipping bills are filed and customs communicates. |
| Plant Quarantine registration | Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage | The route to phytosanitary certificates, and to accredited fumigation treatment. |
| Organic certification and TraceNet | An accredited certification body, under NPOP | Only if you are selling organic. Without it the word cannot appear on the product. |
Which council issues your RCMC depends on the product
This is where exporters lose time, because the answer is commodity specific and there is no single council for food.
- APEDA, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, covers a broad schedule including pulses, cereals, groundnuts, fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, and processed foods. Registration is mandatory for exporters of its scheduled products.
- The Spices Board covers spices, and exporting spices from India requires a Certificate of Registration as Exporter of Spices from the Board. If you ship cumin, chilli, turmeric or any other listed spice, this is not optional and it is not APEDA.
- SHEFEXIL, the Shellac and Forest Products Export Promotion Council, is generally the council for castor oil and related products. Confirm the council for your exact tariff line against the DGFT schedule rather than assuming, because a few products sit in unexpected places.
- The Export Inspection Council and its Export Inspection Agencies handle mandatory pre-shipment inspection and certification where a destination market requires it. This is not an RCMC, it is a separate inspection regime, and whether it applies depends on your product and your destination.
A note for buyers reading this. Asking an Indian supplier for their IEC, FSSAI Central licence number and the relevant RCMC or Spices Board registration is a fast and legitimate credibility check. All of them are verifiable. A supplier who cannot produce them for a commodity that requires them is either new or not who they say they are.
The AD code trap
Worth its own paragraph because it delays more first shipments than anything else on the list. The authorised dealer code registration is done at each port or airport separately. An exporter fully registered at Mundra cannot file a shipping bill at Nhava Sheva until the AD code is registered there too. It is a short process, but it is a process, and it usually gets discovered when the container is already at the terminal. If you are switching ports, sort the AD code first.
Part two: documents generated for every shipment
This is the per-container set. Some of it is commercial, some regulatory, some purely for the bank.
The commercial core
- Commercial invoice. The description, quantity, unit price, total, Incoterm, currency, payment terms, and the HS code. Everything else in the document set is checked against this, so errors here propagate.
- Packing list. Bag or carton count, net and gross weight per unit and in total, marks and numbers, and the lot or batch numbers. Reconcile the lot numbers here against your certificate of analysis and any official certificate. Mismatches between these two documents cause more border delays than any quality issue.
- Proforma invoice. Issued before the order to allow the buyer to arrange the letter of credit or advance payment. Not a shipping document, but the terms on it become the terms everyone else works from.
- Purchase order or sales contract. The specification lives here. If the specification is only in an email thread, you do not have a specification.
Customs and transport
- Shipping bill. Filed electronically on ICEGATE. It is the export declaration, and it carries the AD code, the IEC, the HS code and the scheme under which you are exporting.
- Let Export Order (LEO). Customs clearance granted on the shipping bill. Until the LEO is issued the goods are not legally exported, whatever the terminal receipt says.
- Bill of lading or air waybill. The contract of carriage and, for a negotiable bill of lading, the document of title. Get the consignee, notify party, description and marks exactly as the letter of credit requires, because this is the document banks scrutinise hardest.
- VGM declaration. The verified gross mass of the packed container, required under the SOLAS convention before the container can be loaded. Late VGM means a missed sailing.
- Weight and measurement certificate. Often requested separately by buyers and by letters of credit.
Origin: two different certificates
The phrase "certificate of origin" covers two documents with different purposes, and buyers frequently request the one they do not need.
| Non-preferential | Preferential | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | States where the goods were produced. Used for statistics, for import formalities and sometimes for letters of credit. | Claims a reduced or zero tariff under a trade agreement between India and the destination. |
| Issued by | Chambers of commerce and other authorised bodies, through the common digital platform | The authorised issuing agency for the specific agreement, following that agreement's rules |
| What governs it | General origin rules | The rules of origin in the specific agreement, including value addition and change of tariff heading tests |
| If you get it wrong | Usually a delay | Your buyer pays full duty, and may face a retrospective claim if the origin claim is later disallowed |
If your buyer is claiming a tariff preference, the preferential certificate has to be right, and the rules of origin behind it are product specific. Ask the buyer which agreement they are claiming under before shipment, not after. Retrospective certificates are possible in some regimes and painful in all of them.
The three certificates people confuse
These get requested interchangeably and they are not interchangeable.
| Certificate | What it certifies | Who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| Phytosanitary certificate | That the consignment has been inspected and is considered free from quarantine pests, meeting the importing country's plant health requirements. Governed by the International Plant Protection Convention framework. | Plant Quarantine authorities in the exporting country |
| Fumigation certificate | That a specific treatment was applied, naming the fumigant, the dosage, the temperature and the exposure period. | An accredited fumigation agency |
| Health certificate | That the food is fit for human consumption, typically referencing the manufacturing conditions and specified test results. | The designated competent authority for the product and destination |
A fourth document travels with these and is not a certificate in the same sense: the certificate of analysis, which reports laboratory results for the specific lot. It is issued by a laboratory, ideally ISO/IEC 17025 accredited for the methods used. It is the document that carries your moisture, defect, mycotoxin and residue numbers, so it is the one your specification actually gets tested against. Insist on lot-specific results rather than a typical values sheet.
Two related points. If you use wooden pallets or wooden dunnage, they need ISPM 15 treatment and the stamp to prove it, and this catches shipments out regularly because nobody thinks about the pallet. And where the destination requires it, methyl bromide or phosphine fumigation has to be arranged with enough time for the exposure period before loading, which is a scheduling constraint and not a tick box.
Destination-specific conformity documents
Several markets operate their own pre-shipment conformity regimes, and each has its own portal, its own timing and its own consequence for getting it wrong.
- Saudi Arabia runs the SABER platform, requiring a product certificate of conformity and then a shipment certificate of conformity before arrival.
- Several African markets operate pre-export verification of conformity programmes, with inspection in the country of export.
- Halal certification is required or commercially expected in a number of markets. Check which certifying body the destination recognises, because recognition is not universal.
- Kosher certification where the buyer's market requires it.
The pattern with all of these is the same: the certification has to happen before shipment, and it cannot be retrofitted after arrival. Ask the buyer early.
Banking and payment
- Letter of credit where used, with the documentary requirements read carefully at the time it is opened rather than at presentation.
- Bill of exchange or draft, where the payment terms call for one.
- Insurance certificate, needed where the Incoterm puts insurance on the seller, so CIF and CIP.
- Electronic Bank Realisation Certificate (e-BRC), generated after the export proceeds are received. It is the proof of realisation that underpins export benefits and closes the loop on the shipping bill.
Incoterms decide who does what
The Incoterm you agree is not a price adjustment, it is an allocation of tasks, cost and risk. Most documentation disputes are actually Incoterm disputes that nobody framed that way.
| Term | Seller arranges | Risk passes | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| FOB | Export clearance and delivery on board the vessel | When goods are on board | The buyer nominates the vessel, so a booking delay at the buyer's end becomes a storage cost argument. |
| CFR | Export clearance plus ocean freight to the named destination port | When goods are on board at origin | Risk passes at origin even though the seller pays freight. The buyer bears the voyage risk with no insurance unless they buy it. |
| CIF | Export clearance, ocean freight and minimum insurance | When goods are on board at origin | The default insurance cover is minimum. If you want full cover, specify it rather than assuming. |
| DAP | Everything to the named destination place, excluding import clearance and duty | On arrival at the named place, ready for unloading | Import clearance stays with the buyer. If they are not ready, the container sits and somebody pays. |
| EXW | Nothing beyond making goods available | At the seller's premises | Rarely appropriate for export, since the buyer cannot practically file an Indian shipping bill. Use FCA instead. |
Whichever you choose, name the version of the Incoterms rules and the exact place. "CIF Rotterdam" is workable. "CIF Europe" is not a term, it is an argument waiting to happen.
Why letters of credit fail, and how to stop it
A large share of first presentations under letters of credit are rejected for discrepancies. Almost none of those rejections are about the goods. They are about documents that do not match each other or do not match the credit.
Run this check before you present:
- Is the goods description in the invoice identical to the description in the credit, word for word, including any spelling the credit uses.
- Do the consignee and notify party on the bill of lading match the credit exactly.
- Is the shipment date within the latest shipment date, and is presentation within the presentation period and before the credit expiry.
- Do all documents show the same marks, numbers, weights and quantities.
- Is the bill of lading clean, marked shipped on board, with the correct number of originals as required.
- Does the insurance cover the currency, the percentage and the risks the credit specifies, and is it dated no later than the shipment date.
- Are all the certificates the credit lists actually present, issued by the body the credit names, and signed and stamped as required.
- Are partial shipments and transhipment allowed or prohibited, and does your bill of lading comply.
The single most useful habit is to read the credit the day it arrives, against the contract, and to raise amendments then. An unworkable requirement is cheap to fix at that point and expensive to fix at presentation.
What happens at the buyer's end
Your documents feed into an import process you do not control, and the requirements there shape what you must send.
- European Union. A Common Health Entry Document lodged in TRACES before arrival, presentation at a designated border control post, and for products listed in the annexes of Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 either intensified checks or an official certificate plus origin-country sampling. The mechanics, including the certificate validity clocks, are in how EU border controls work for Indian food imports.
- United States. Prior notice of imported food filed with FDA before arrival, and the importer's obligations under the Foreign Supplier Verification Program, which put the duty to evaluate and verify hazards on the importer rather than on you. Expect to be asked for hazard analysis documentation, not just certificates.
- United Kingdom. Its own import notification system and its own product lists, which have diverged from the EU's. Do not assume EU compliance answers the UK question.
- Other markets. Many operate registration of the exporting facility, which is a lead time measured in months rather than days. Ask early whether facility registration applies.
How we work
We ship from Gandhidham, next to Mundra, and we handle the Indian side of this list as routine work. What we will not do is tell you a document exists when it does not, or promise a lead time we cannot hold. If a destination needs a conformity certificate that takes three weeks, we will say three weeks.
If you want the container side of the planning, that is in how many tonnes fit in a 20ft container. Otherwise tell us the product and the destination and we will come back with the document set and the timeline.