Indian Customs officials have confiscated at least 46 containers of Chinese walnuts faked by traders as Afghan produce. Containers from the  Comoros-flagged vessel WIV Reyfa have been unloaded and the carrier has departed the port.

“Customs have confiscated the containers that have Chinese walnuts in them. They drew a list of traders and investigated. All of them either said the consignments were not theirs or attempts have been made to mislead officials with their names,” said a Mumbai-based trade source.

If any importer turns up to claim the container, they will have to pay 100 per cent duty, besides facing proceedings for “misdeclaration”. “It is unlikely anyone will come forward to claim the consignments. Apart from paying penalties, they will have to face uneasy questions over their past shipments,” said a North-based trader.

How importers escape

If there is no claimant, the walnut consignments will be auctioned off. However, by the time they are auctioned, the quality would have deteriorated, said the Mumbai-based trade source.

The importers escape because they will have to go to the banks to present their bill of lading and make payments before going to Customs for clearance. 

“Even if the bill of lading shows their name, importers can claim that it was sent wrongly and don’t make any payment. As a result, the seller has to end up losing money,” said the New Delhi trade source.

WIV Reyfa, laden with 309 containers and claimed to have originated from Bandar Abbas Port in Iran, was held up by Customs officials for almost 3 weeks. Customs officials acted on “specific information” on the misdeclaration of origin received by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on February 2.  

CIU circular

A circular issued by the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU) on February 17 said one person was arrested, and investigations revealed ₹50 crore in duty evasion.  Walnuts from countries such as China, the US and Chile are falsely labelled as Afghan produce to claim zero duty benefits under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). 

WIV Reyfa carried consignments for traders in Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad besides Mumbai. On the other hand, Mumbai dryfruit traders urged the Customs authorities to release Afghan-origin products first. 

The Afghanistan consulate in Mumbai, too, approached the Customs department for the release of consignments that were not carrying Chinese walnuts. Some traders in New Delhi appealed to the Centre to help them get their consignments. 

100% import duty

During Covid, consignments of unauthorised peas were detained at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. While the Bombay High Court allowed their imports, the Supreme Court quashed the high court ruling. However, the apex court allowed importers to re-export provided they paid the penalties to the Customs Department, according to the New Delhi source. 

Walnuts from other origins, such as the US, have better kernel yield. Every kg of domestic walnut-in-shell yields 350 gm of kernels. In the case of the US or other countries, the yield is 450-500 gm. 

But India currently imposes a 100 per cent Customs duty on walnut imports to protect domestic growers, particularly in Kashmir. So, unscrupulous traders bring walnuts from other countries, claiming to be from Afghanistan.

One of the modi operandi is that some traders purchase walnuts that would have been imported into one of the Gulf ports. Then, these are shipped to ports such as Bandar Abbas to claim zero-duty imports under SAFTA.

Traders said documents relating to the shipments are submitted manually, and hence, it is easy to “manipulate” the origin of a product.

Published on February 24, 2026