Chinese walnuts in guise of Afghan in dry fruit container ship stopped by Indian Customs at Nhava Sheva port

At least 46 containers from the Comoros-flagged vessel, WIV Reyfadetained by customs officials at the port of Nhava Sheva, | Photo credit: IMRAN NISSAR

The ship, carrying 310 containers and believed to have originated from the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran, has been held up by customs officials for the past two and a half weeks. Customs officials had acted on “specific information” about the incorrect origin declaration received by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

A Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU) circular dated February 17 said one person has been arrested in this connection and investigations have revealed tax evasion worth ₹50 crore. So far, no importer has come forward to identify the shipments.

Also American and Chile walnuts

“The entire ship has been held up because of these 46 containers. Boxes of walnuts have come from China, and exporters have not even changed the packages with Chinese script,” said a Mumbai-based trade source, who did not wish to be identified.

“This misrepresentation has been happening for years. Walnuts from the US and Chile are coming in as Afghan products to claim the zero-duty benefit under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA),” said a trader based in North India.

Walnuts from other origins, such as the US, have a better kernel yield. Each kg of domestic walnut in shell yields 350 grams of nuts. In the case of the USA or other countries, the yield is 450-500 grams.

But India currently imposes a 100 percent customs duty on walnut imports to protect domestic farmers, especially in Kashmir. So unscrupulous traders bring walnuts from other countries, claiming to come from Afghanistan.

Trade rivalry

“This time the customs have taken action because some of the traders have given specific information to the officials due to rivalry. This does not only apply to walnuts. It also happens to arecan nuts and black cardamom,” said the north Indian trader.

The way of working is that some traders are purchasing walnuts that would have been imported into one of the Gulf ports. These are then shipped to ports such as Bandar Abbas to claim duty-free imports under SAFTA.

“Similarly, arecan nuts from other growing countries such as China land in Colombo (Sri Lanka) before being shipped to India to avail SAFTA benefits,” the north Indian trader said.

A south Indian trader said that Chinese garlic also made its way to India in the same way.

Traders said that documents related to shipments are submitted manually, and therefore it is easy to ‘manipulate’ the origin of a product.

Current domestic prices

The CIU circular said that to substantiate their false claims about the country of origin, traders falsify transit documentation (House Bill of Lading) and upload it in E-sanchit, ICES (an e-commerce portal of Indian Customs). This creates an artificial trail of freight traffic from ports like Bandar Abbas to other ports, especially in the Gulf, such as Jebel Ali.

On e-commerce websites, Kashmir walnut in shell costs ₹450 per kg for the jumbo variety and around ₹350 for other varieties, while the Californian and Chile varieties cost ₹560 and ₹700 respectively.

Published on February 20, 2026