Agri Export Glossary

Seeds or kernels that weigh one ounce. A 42/44 kabuli chickpea count means 42 to 44 seeds make an ounce, so a lower number is a larger seed. Count describes size and nothing else, so defect maximums have to be specified separately.

Worked through in Kabuli chickpea sizes and counts

Hand picked selected. It describes a cleaning and sorting process, not a guaranteed defect level, and on a modern line the sorting is optical rather than manual. Ask what the process actually is and contract the defect maximums separately.

Worked through in Peanut grades: Java, Bold and TJ

The makhana size convention, quoted as a number such as 4 suta or 5 suta. It is a widely used trade term with no published standard behind it, so a suta number needs a retained sample or a millimetre range beside it to be enforceable.

Worked through in Makhana grades and suta sizes

The milled forms of a pulse. Chilka is split with the skin on, dhuli is split and dehusked, mogar is dehusked whole or lightly split, and gota is the whole kernel dehusked with both cotyledons still joined. They are different products with different yields and prices, not grades of one product.

Worked through in Urad and black gram: the four forms

The surface finish applied to milled dal. Oil polish means an edible oil has been added to the surface, which is a declarable ingredient in most destination markets. Unpolished, water polished and oil polished are three different products and the line is the one buyers most often leave blank.

Worked through in Toor dal: milling, polish and the contract

Finished dal obtained from a given weight of whole pulse. It runs roughly 68 to 75 percent from whole pigeon pea to toor dal, which is why dal is not priced as whole pulse plus a processing fee.

Worked through in Toor dal export specification

Extractable red pigment in chilli, measured by solvent extraction and spectrophotometry. It measures colour and nothing else: not heat, not appearance, not quality. It also falls steadily in storage, so a value is only meaningful with a test date beside it.

Worked through in What ASTA 40, 80 and 160 actually mean

The pungency scale for chilli. In modern practice capsaicinoids are quantified by chromatography and converted at roughly 16 Scoville units per part per million, so 0.226 percent capsaicin works out near 36,000 SHU. Heat and colour are independent: a high ASTA chilli can be almost heatless.

Worked through in ASTA colour value and pungency

Purity grades for cumin, not destinations. Singapore quality means 99 percent purity with 1 percent admixture, Europe quality means 99.5 percent and 0.5 percent. Neither is a government standard, and neither says anything about pesticide residues, which is where EU-bound cumin actually gets rejected.

Worked through in Cumin seed export grades explained

What the headline purity percentage is measured against, and on what basis the remainder is allowed. Two lots can both be sold as 99 percent and differ substantially, because the permitted composition of the other 1 percent is the part that decides whether the lot performs.

Worked through in Sesame quality parameters

Everything in the lot that is not the commodity. It matters what it is made of: other seeds, dust and dirt, stones and mud balls, and light or immature berries all sit inside one admixture number and have completely different consequences downstream.

Worked through in Cumin grades and what to specify

Two ash figures on a spice specification. Total ash reflects mineral content. Acid insoluble ash reflects sand and soil, so it is the figure that catches poor cleaning, and it is the one to contract if you are worried about grit in a ground product.

Worked through in Cumin grades and what to specify

The aromatic fraction of a spice, reported as a percentage by volume. Purity is the headline number on cumin, but volatile oil is what decides whether the cumin still smells like cumin on arrival, and heat treatment and long storage both reduce it.

Worked through in Cumin seed export grades explained

Water content by weight, and the single parameter that most often decides whether a lot survives the voyage. Typical export maximums run about 10 to 12 percent depending on the commodity. Above the range you have mould risk over a sea leg and caking risk in a ground product.

Worked through in Toor dal export specification

Fatty acids liberated from the oil by hydrolysis, reported as a percentage or as an acid value in mg KOH per gram. It measures how far breakdown has already gone. It belongs on the specification for any dehulled or blanched seed, because removing the coat removes the protection.

Worked through in Blanched peanut specifications

Primary oxidation products in a fat, reported in milliequivalents of oxygen per kilogram. Read with free fatty acid it tells you the oxidative state at the point of test, which is why both belong on a hulled sesame or blanched kernel contract rather than only one.

Worked through in Sesame quality parameters

Degree of unsaturation in an oil. It is used as an identity and authenticity check, because a value outside the expected range for the named oil suggests the oil is not entirely what it is sold as.

Worked through in Groundnut oil grades

Average fatty acid chain length, in mg KOH per gram. Used together with iodine value it forms an identity pair for an oil, which is why both appear on a castor or groundnut oil certificate of analysis even though neither is a quality limit as such.

Worked through in FSG castor oil specification

Hydroxyl groups available for reaction, in mg KOH per gram, and the parameter that makes castor oil an industrial feedstock rather than just an oil. FSG castor oil runs 160 to 168, and that range sets the stoichiometry of the polyurethane or polyol reaction it feeds, so it is not a cosmetic line on the certificate.

Worked through in FSG castor oil specification

First Special Grade castor oil, the commercial benchmark specification: typically acid value max 2.0 mg KOH/g, hydroxyl value 160 to 168, iodine value 82 to 88, saponification value 176 to 187, moisture and volatile matter max 0.25 percent and unsaponifiable matter max 0.5 percent. It is a trade specification, not a government standard.

Worked through in FSG castor oil specification

Grading by the aperture a seed passes or is retained on, quoted in millimetres. Whole green gram is graded this way rather than by count, so a moong specification that names a count instead of a sieve is describing the wrong axis.

Worked through in Moong sieve sizes and germination

The proportion of seed that sprouts under test. For a sprouting buyer it is the only specification that really matters, and it is the one most contracts leave out. It is destroyed by heat, by age and by fumigation with some agents, so a sprouting lot has to be handled as living seed all the way to the container.

Worked through in Moong sieve sizes and germination

The sharpness and contrast of the hilum marking on a black-eyed cowpea. It is a buying parameter in its own right and it cannot be reduced to a number, which is why it has to be contracted against a retained sample rather than an adjective.

Worked through in Cowpeas and moth beans

Loss of colour in storage and transit from light, heat and time. It affects green pea, red chilli and other colour-bought commodities, and it means a lot is genuinely more bleached on arrival than at dispatch. Contract the colour at a stated point in the chain, not in the abstract.

Worked through in Yellow and green dry peas

Removing the skin from a peanut kernel with heat and friction. It makes the kernel look cleaner and every remaining defect more visible, and it removes most of the natural antioxidants, so blanched kernels go rancid faster than skin-on kernels.

Worked through in Blanched peanut specifications

The harvest a lot came from. It sets availability, moisture behaviour, colour and, for anything bought on aroma or germination, performance. Naming the crop year on the purchase order is how you avoid being shipped last season honestly.

Worked through in Indian red chilli varieties

A sealed sample of the shipped lot held by both parties as the physical reference a dispute is assessed against. It is the only way to make an unquantifiable parameter enforceable, which is why it appears in nearly every specification article on this site.

Worked through in Pre-shipment inspection

A mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus moulds, regulated separately as aflatoxin B1 and as the sum of B1, B2, G1 and G2, with aflatoxin M1 regulated in milk. It is very unevenly distributed in a lot, so a few badly contaminated kernels in twenty tonnes can fail a container, which is what the sampling rules are built around.

Worked through in Aflatoxin limits in the EU, US and India

One of the many small samples taken from different points in a lot and combined. Under Regulation (EU) 2023/2782 an aflatoxin plan for groundnuts and similar products takes 100 increments of about 200 g each. Commercial practice is often a single grab sample, and that gap explains most disputed results.

Worked through in Why the sample matters more than the test

The incremental samples combined into one. The official aflatoxin plan produces a 20 kg aggregate sample, which for lots of 15 tonnes and above is divided into two 10 kg laboratory samples, each finely ground and homogenised before analysis.

Worked through in Why the sample matters more than the test

A large lot split into portions that are each sampled and tested as though they were separate lots. Lots above 15 tonnes are handled this way under the EU mycotoxin sampling rules, so a single result cannot be stretched across an arbitrarily large tonnage.

Worked through in Aflatoxin limits in the EU, US and India

The lowest concentration a method can report as a number rather than as a detection. It matters commercially because some residues are enforced at the LOQ itself, meaning any quantifiable result is a failure.

Worked through in Ethylene oxide and the steam alternative

A convention for summing results where anything below the limit of quantification is counted as zero. The EU sum of aflatoxins is calculated on this basis, so how the sum is computed is part of the specification, not an accounting detail.

Worked through in Aflatoxin limits in the EU, US and India

The highest permitted concentration of a specific pesticide in a specific crop, set substance by substance. Where the EU has set no MRL for a substance on a crop, a default of 0.01 mg/kg applies, which in practice is the analytical floor.

Worked through in EU pesticide MRLs for Indian food exports

A mycotoxin regulated in dried spices among other foods, at 15 µg/kg for dried spices other than those separately listed, under Regulation (EU) 2023/915. For EU-bound cumin it is a live rejection risk even though the named-spice aflatoxin limits do not cover cumin.

Worked through in Cumin grades and EU contaminant limits

A gas used in some countries to reduce microbial load in spices and seeds. It is not authorised as a plant protection product in the European Union, so no specific MRL is set for most crops and the 0.01 mg/kg default applies. A treated lot cannot be salvaged.

Worked through in Ethylene oxide and the steam alternative

The reaction product of ethylene oxide with chloride in the food matrix, and the compound that actually gets found. It is far more persistent than the gas, and EU enforcement assesses the sum of both expressed as ethylene oxide. This is why treatment history rather than recent treatment is what shows up in a result.

Worked through in Ethylene oxide and the steam alternative

Microbial reduction using saturated steam, the durable alternative to ethylene oxide for EU-bound spices and seeds. It carries a cost in aroma and, in oil-bearing seed, in free fatty acid, because heat plus moisture accelerates hydrolysis. Ask for the before and after figures on the specific lot.

Worked through in Ethylene oxide and the steam alternative

The concentration at which the US Food and Drug Administration will act on a contaminant, used where no formal tolerance is set. For aflatoxin the level is 20 parts per billion total aflatoxins in human food and 0.5 parts per billion for aflatoxin M1 in milk, with higher and species-dependent levels for animal feed.

Worked through in Aflatoxin limits in the EU, US and India

The FDA mechanism that allows product to be detained without physical examination where there is a history of violations for a product, shipper, manufacturer or country. Getting off one takes evidence over time, which is why an alert causes lasting commercial damage rather than a single delayed container.

Worked through in US food import requirements

The EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. Its notifications, together with border rejection data, are the basis on which the Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 annex lists are reviewed roughly every six months, so a product and origin combination can move between annexes between seasons.

Worked through in How EU border controls work

An official certificate that a consignment meets the plant health requirements of the importing country. It certifies plant health, not food safety, and it does not replace a health certificate. Most of its value sits in the additional declaration.

Worked through in Phytosanitary certificates and fumigation

The free text line on a phytosanitary certificate that states what the destination specifically requires, such as a treatment, a pest freedom statement or the use of new bags. Wrong wording on that one line will hold a container even when the treatment itself was done correctly.

Worked through in Getting the additional declaration wording right

Evidence that a consignment was fumigated with a named agent at a named dose for a named exposure period. The exposure period is the part that gets shortened under time pressure, and it is the part a destination inspector can check against the certificate.

Worked through in Phytosanitary certificates and fumigation

The international standard for wood packaging material. Wooden pallets and dunnage need treatment and marking under it, and the stamp on the wood is the evidence. It is a routine cause of problems at destination because nobody thinks about the pallet until the consignment is inspected.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The implementing regulation listing products and origins subject to increased official controls on entry into the EU. Annex I means intensified checks at the border at a stated frequency. Annex II additionally requires official sampling and analysis in the country of origin plus an official certificate, all before the goods leave.

Worked through in How EU border controls work

The designated point of entry where a listed consignment must be presented for official checks. It is designated by category of goods, so the nearest port is not necessarily an eligible one for your commodity.

Worked through in How EU border controls work

The entry document lodged in advance in the EU TRACES system for a consignment subject to official controls, under Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625. CHED-D is the version for food and feed of non-animal origin. It is lodged by the importer, from information you supply.

Worked through in How EU border controls work

The European Commission online system through which entry documents and several official certificates are lodged and endorsed electronically. A certificate that exists on paper but was never correctly raised in TRACES will not release the goods.

Worked through in How EU border controls work

The US programme that places the duty to evaluate and verify hazards on the importer rather than the exporter. An Indian exporter cannot be the FSVP importer, but almost everything the FSVP importer needs comes from the exporter, so the division of labour has to be agreed before the first shipment.

Worked through in US food import requirements

The advance notification of imported food filed with FDA before arrival. It is a filing obligation with a clock attached, and a late or defective filing holds the consignment regardless of the condition of the goods.

Worked through in US food import requirements

A laboratory report of tested parameters against the agreed specification for a specific lot. It is only as good as the sample it was drawn from, which is why the sampling method belongs in the contract alongside the parameters.

Worked through in Pre-shipment inspection

A document stating the country in which the goods were produced, used for tariff treatment and for preferential access under a trade agreement. Preferential and non-preferential certificates are different instruments with different rules behind them.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The carrier document that acts as receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage and, in negotiable form, document of title. Under a documentary credit its wording has to match the credit exactly, and that matching is where most credits fail.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

A bank undertaking to pay against documents that comply strictly with the terms of the credit. Payment turns on the documents, not on the goods, which is why credits fail on paperwork rather than on product.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The code issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade without which an Indian entity cannot export. It is one of the one-time registrations rather than a per-shipment document.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The bank code that has to be registered at each port an exporter ships from. It is registered port by port, which is the trap: a shipment routed through a new port stops until the code is registered there.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

Registration with the relevant export promotion council, such as APEDA for pulses, cereals, groundnuts and processed foods, or the Spices Board for spices. Which council applies depends on the commodity, and some commodities need more than one.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The Indian customs export declaration. The Let Export Order endorsed on it is the permission for the goods to leave, and downstream benefits and realisation records are all reconciled against it.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The Indian organic standard and the accreditation framework for the certification bodies that operate under it. Holding NPOP certification and having it accepted in a destination market are two separate questions.

Worked through in Organic certification for Indian agri exports

The electronic certificate each organic consignment needs to enter the European Union. It has to be issued and endorsed correctly before the goods can be released as organic, and no later correction turns a conventional release into an organic one.

Worked through in Organic certification for Indian agri exports

The mechanism by which a group of smallholders is certified collectively rather than individually. Most Indian organic volume is produced this way, and the internal control system is where audits most often find problems, so ask to see how it actually works.

Worked through in Organic certification for Indian agri exports

Third party inspection of a lot before it ships. Supervised stuffing is worth more than inspection before or after stuffing, because it is the only point at which the lot, the packing, the container and the seal can all be witnessed together.

Worked through in Why the sample matters more than the test

Test results taken at origin and at destination, which will differ. The contract has to say which one governs and name the surveyor, because a dispute over which result counts is much harder to settle after the fact than before.

Worked through in Pre-shipment inspection

The World Customs Organization classification, harmonised internationally to six digits and extended nationally beyond that. The first six digits are the same everywhere. Anything past them is a national extension and does not travel.

Worked through in HS codes for Indian pulses, spices and oilseeds

The national extensions of the Harmonized System: ITC(HS) in India, the Combined Nomenclature in the European Union and the Harmonized Tariff Schedule in the United States. An eight or ten digit code from one of them is not a code in another.

Worked through in HS codes for Indian pulses, spices and oilseeds

A written classification ruling from the customs authority of the importing country that binds that authority. The EU issues binding tariff information, the US issues ruling letters and India has an advance ruling mechanism. A ruling takes time, which is the argument for starting before the first shipment rather than after the first query.

Worked through in HS codes for Indian pulses, spices and oilseeds

The criteria that decide whether goods qualify as originating for preferential tariff treatment under a trade agreement. Processing in one country of material grown in another is exactly the case where the answer is not obvious and needs checking against the specific agreement.

Worked through in HS codes for Indian pulses, spices and oilseeds

Full container load and less than container load. FCL means the container is yours whether or not it is full. LCL means the consignment is consolidated with others, which introduces handling, contamination and timing risks that an FCL does not have.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

Whether a container fills up before it reaches its weight limit or the reverse. Low density cargo such as beans cubes out, dense milled dal weighs out, and which one applies decides whether a bigger bag helps you or costs you nothing.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

The cargo density at which a container reaches its weight limit and its volume limit at the same time. Comparing your cargo against it tells you whether you will cube out or weigh out, which is the honest way to answer "how many tonnes fit" rather than quoting a single figure.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

Tare is the empty weight of the container, payload is the cargo the container is rated to carry. The container rating is often not the real limit: road weight and axle limits at the destination frequently bind first, and they are set by the destination rather than by the carrier.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

The verified gross mass of a packed container, which the SOLAS convention requires to be verified and declared to the carrier before the container can be loaded aboard the vessel. It is obtained either by weighing the packed container or by an approved calculation method.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

Condensation that forms on the container ceiling when the air inside crosses its dew point and then falls onto the top layer of cargo. It is a routine cause of damage on the India to Europe and India to North America routes, and kraft lining plus desiccant is cheap insurance against it.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

Moisture absorbing units hung inside the container, sized for the cargo weight and the voyage length. Used with a kraft paper lining of the walls and ceiling it is the standard defence against container rain.

Worked through in How many tonnes fit in a 20ft container

The default export bag: woven polypropylene, laminated or lined for humid destinations. The specification that decides whether it survives the voyage runs to several lines, including fabric weight in grams per square metre, and buyers rarely see any of them.

Worked through in Jute, PP and paper packaging compared

The oil applied to jute fibre during spinning. Jute bags for food need food-grade batching oil and that has to be declared, because the ordinary mineral variety taints the contents and there is no fixing it after the fact.

Worked through in Jute, PP and paper packaging compared

A flexible intermediate bulk container of 500 kg or 1,000 kg. It gives fast handling and a low packing cost per tonne, at the price of handling damage on fragile seed and a need for lifting equipment at both ends.

Worked through in Jute, PP and paper packaging compared

A 10 kg to 25 kg paper sack, good for flours and powders and good to print on. It is weak when wet and has poor handling tolerance, so it suits a controlled chain rather than a rough one.

Worked through in Jute, PP and paper packaging compared

Bags that have not been used before. Several destinations require them, some contracts specify them and a phytosanitary additional declaration can require them. Reusing bags is a false economy in export, and it is one of the things a supervised stuffing inspection should verify.

Worked through in Jute, PP and paper packaging compared

Replacing the air in a pack with an inert gas, or removing it. It is excellent for high value and fragile product and it excludes insects, which is why it is worth specifying on a retail pack rather than leaving the film choice open.

Worked through in Jute, PP and paper packaging compared

Beetle damage in pulses. The infestation arrives with the crop rather than in the container, and eggs present before shipment can hatch during a warm voyage, so a lot that was clean at the load port can arrive with live insects. That is why fumigation timing belongs in the shipping schedule rather than being treated as an afterthought.

Worked through in Phytosanitary certificates and fumigation

The ICC rules allocating tasks, cost and risk between seller and buyer. An Incoterm is not a price adjustment, it is an allocation of work, and most documentation disputes are Incoterm disputes that nobody framed that way.

Worked through in Documents required to export food from India

The smallest quantity a supplier will ship. Ours starts at one full container load, roughly 20 to 24 metric tonnes depending on the product and the packaging, with LCL available on selected products. The fixed cost of documentation, inspection and freight is what stops it scaling further down.

Worked through in Request a quote