How to verify an Indian exporter: APEDA, Spices Board, FSSAI and IEC

Before a first order with a new Indian supplier, there are four registrations worth checking. Each one tells you something specific, and none of them tells you everything. Knowing what each covers, and what it does not, is the difference between a real check and a reassuring logo on a website.

The four registrations

IEC, the Importer Exporter Code. Issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. This is the code that permits a business to clear goods through Indian customs for export. Without it, a company cannot legally ship out of India at all.

What it tells you: the entity exists as a registered exporter. What it does not tell you: anything about product quality, capacity or conduct.

FSSAI licence. Issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. This is the food safety licence required to handle and export food products.

What it tells you: the business is licensed to handle food. What it does not tell you: that any particular lot meets your specification.

APEDA registration. The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority oversees the export of scheduled agricultural and processed food products, which covers rice, fresh and processed produce, and a range of other categories.

What it tells you: the exporter is registered for the scheduled products it falls under. What it does not tell you: which specific products they actually handle in volume.

Spices Board of India registration. Issued by the Spices Board under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and required for spice consignments leaving India.

What it tells you: the exporter is registered to ship spices. What it does not tell you: the grade or origin of what they will ship you.

How to check them properly

Ask for the certificate itself, not a claim.

For each registration you care about, request a copy of the certificate showing the registered entity name, the registration number and the validity dates. Then check three things:

1. The name matches. The entity on the certificate should be the entity on your proforma invoice and, later, on your bill of lading. Trading names and registered names diverge more often than you would expect. If they differ, ask why, and get the relationship in writing.
2. The dates are current. Registrations expire. A certificate from three years ago is not evidence of anything today.
3. The scope covers your product. A spice registration does not cover rice. A food licence does not cover cocopeat, which is a horticultural growing medium rather than a food.

Where the issuing authority publishes a verification facility, use it against the number on the certificate rather than accepting the document at face value.

What registrations do not cover

This is the part that matters most, because it is where buyers get caught.

None of these four registrations certifies that a specific shipment meets your specification. They are permissions to operate, not guarantees of quality. A fully registered exporter can still ship you the wrong grade.

The checks that cover the shipment are different ones:

• A written specification, agreed before the order, stating grade, technical parameters, packaging, labelling and destination requirements.
• A Certificate of Analysis for the shipped lot, reporting against those parameters rather than against a generic standard.
• A phytosanitary certificate where the destination requires plant health clearance.
• A certificate of origin, for customs and tariff treatment.
• Fumigation and health certificates, where the product and destination require them.

Ask which of these will accompany your container, in writing, before you place the order. The answer should be specific to your product and destination, not a general list.

Questions worth asking on a first order

• Which registrations do you hold, and can you send current certificates?
• Does the registered entity name match the one that will invoice me?
• Which of these certificates will travel with my shipment?
• Will the Certificate of Analysis report against my stated parameters, or against a house standard?
• Can you arrange a sample against the agreed specification before I commit?
• Who arranges testing, and at which stage?

An exporter who answers these directly is easy to work with. An exporter who answers them vaguely is telling you something useful too.

Beyond the paperwork

Documentation confirms that a business is entitled to trade and that a shipment was tested. It does not tell you whether a supplier will call you when a crop runs short, or whether the second container will match the first.

For those, the practical checks are ordinary commercial ones: start with a smaller order, hold it strictly to the specification, and see whether the second shipment matches the first without being chased. Ask for references in your own market. Watch how a supplier behaves when something is not perfect, because that is when you learn the most.

In short

Check IEC to confirm the exporter can ship. Check FSSAI to confirm they can handle food. Check APEDA and the Spices Board for the categories they apply to. Verify the certificates rather than the claims, and confirm the name and the dates.

Then treat the specification and the Certificate of Analysis as the real controls, because those are the documents that describe your goods.

If you would like our registration details alongside a quote, ask for both in the same enquiry and we will send them together.