Importing From India to Greece

In July 2025 a sewist in Greece answered a question on a forum about buying block-print fabric from India. The fabric was lovely, she said, but know that "their block-printing is done on unbleached cotton, so the backgrounded imprinted areas will not be white-white", and she added that she'd had no problems with the seller shipping to Greece (r/sewing, July 2025 (opens in a new tab)). It's a small, useful line - the product was fine, and the thing to write into the order was the ground colour.

Greece is like that with India. Most of what goes wrong is specific and fixable, and most of it shows up at the border. This page covers what's Greek - the sesame problem, the Piraeus route, the VAT and the label. Duty and the EU-wide rules are on the EU bloc page. Greece wasn't in our trade data study, so we have no India-Greece volumes.

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

1. Greece's Sesame Problem

Greece raised 55 EU food alerts on Indian goods from 2021 to September 2026, and 47 were border rejections (RASFF Window (opens in a new tab), our count to 22 September 2026). Sesame dominates. 31 of the 55 were sesame seeds, hulled or natural, and 19 of those were Salmonella, with the rest pesticide residues, chlorpyrifos among them. The latest Salmonella case was in May 2026 (RASFF 2026.4553 (opens in a new tab)).

We can't tell from the records why Greece catches so much more Indian sesame than its neighbours, but the pattern is steady year after year. If you import Indian sesame into Greece then ask for a Salmonella result per lot from an accredited lab, plus a pesticide screen with chlorpyrifos on it, and send both to your broker before arrival. The India-side controls are on Quality control.

Watch the routing too. Twice in 2026 Indian cumin arrived via Türkiye without the health certificate it needed (RASFF 2026.2334 (opens in a new tab)). A certificate issued in India doesn't always travel with goods that change hands on the way.

2. Piraeus and the Canal

On a Suez routing Piraeus is the first large EU port a ship from India reaches. On a Cape routing it's among the last. With Red Sea routing still mixed in September 2026, the same Greek importer can see a short transit one month and a long one the next. Piraeus didn't appear as a destination from any of our six Indian gateways, which means the carrier relays Greek cargo somewhere, and that hub time is yours to ask about. Name the route on every quote. SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can book the route and get the certificates lined up.

3. VAT, Labels and Customs

Import VAT (ΦΠΑ) is charged at the Greek standard rate of 24% (Your Europe, VAT rates (opens in a new tab), last checked by the Commission 13 July 2026, read 25 September 2026). Some Aegean islands have had reduced rates, but that EU table leaves regional rates out and the Greek tax authority blocked our reads, so ask your broker whether a reduction applies to your delivery address.

The label is in Greek under Regulation (EU) 1007/2011 (opens in a new tab). Greek has its own alphabet, so send the supplier the exact text as artwork and approve a printed proof. Customs is run by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE, aade.gr, listed on the EU's page of national customs sites (opens in a new tab)).

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