Importing From India to Germany

In 2026 German inspectors pulled an Indian hair dye off the market that contained p-phenylenediamine (PPD) at 9.68 g per 100 g, with none of the coupler chemicals that make PPD safer to use. The alert calls uncoupled PPD "an extreme skin sensitiser" (Safety Gate (opens in a new tab)). It was one of 11 Indian hair and brow dyes Germany has flagged since 2021.

Germany is India's biggest consumer market in the EU and its most active inspector of Indian goods, both at the border and on the shelf. This page covers what's German - what those inspectors find, the VAT, the label and the ports. Duty and the EU-wide rules are on the EU bloc page, and we won't repeat them.

Last researched 28 September 2026 · Next review 24 October 2026 · Written by SourcingFrom

1. What Germany Finds in Indian Goods

Germany raised 31 EU product safety alerts on Indian goods from 2021 to September 2026, more than any other member state (Safety Gate (opens in a new tab), our count to 18 September 2026). Seventeen were cosmetics, and 11 of those were hair and brow dyes with PPD. Seven were chromium VI in leather - a children's lederhose, baby shoes, work gloves, wallets and a dog lead.

Two lessons come out of that list. If you import henna, hair colour or brow tint from India then ask for the full formula and a PPD result from an EU-accredited lab, and don't take "natural henna" on trust. And if you buy leather from Kanpur, Chennai or Agra then put a chromium VI limit in the purchase order and test the bulk, because tanning and storage decide it, not the look of the sample. Our test plans are on Quality control.

On food, Germany raised 250 RASFF notifications on Indian goods in the same period, second only to the Netherlands, and more of them come from market checks than from border rejections (RASFF Window (opens in a new tab), our count to 22 September 2026). Germany is also a distribution hub. The Austria, Denmark and Czechia pages show Indian spices failing there "via Germany". If you wholesale Indian food out of Germany, your customers' inspectors will trace it back to you.

2. What Germany Buys From India

Germany is India's seventh-largest export market, at US$11.53 billion in FY2025-26, up 8.44% (PIB, 15 April 2026 (opens in a new tab), our computation). Among EU members only the Netherlands, a transit hub, takes more.

Cotton T-shirts show the market's shape. India shipped US$142.13 million of them to Germany in FY2025-26 at an FOB price of US$2.64 a piece, more per piece than the US (US$2.43) or Australia (US$2.03) (our arithmetic on DoC TradeStat (opens in a new tab)). One likely reason is that German buyers tend to ask for certified knitwear, and India holds 27.8% of the world's GOTS-certified facilities (GOTS Annual Report 2025 (opens in a new tab), read 25 September 2026). If you're sourcing organic cotton for Germany, India is the obvious place to start. Check each certificate in the GOTS public database, not the PDF the supplier sends.

3. VAT, Labels and Ports

Import VAT (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer) is charged at 19% (UStG, section 12 (opens in a new tab), read 25 September 2026). Import VAT on goods for your business can be claimed back as input tax on your VAT return (Zoll, Vorsteuerabzug (opens in a new tab), read 25 September 2026). Whether any payment deferral applies to you is a question for your tax adviser.

The textile label is in German under Regulation (EU) 1007/2011 (opens in a new tab). Put the German fibre names in the purchase order, because a supplier who labels in English only won't fix it after the container sails. The same label works in Austria.

Customs is Zoll (opens in a new tab). Hamburg and Bremerhaven are the container gateways, though much German-bound Indian cargo lands at Rotterdam or Antwerp and comes in by road, rail or barge. In our schedules Hamburg showed up only as a relay hub on India to US services, never as a destination, so ask your forwarder for a direct Hamburg option and compare it with Rotterdam plus trucking. If you'd rather hand over the lab testing and the booking, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) does both.

Up: the EU bloc page and India's trade agreements.