The Harmonised System code on your invoice decides two things: the duty your buyer pays, and how quickly customs releases the container.
Getting it wrong is not a paperwork detail. It can change the landed cost and it can trigger a physical inspection. This page explains how the system works and where Indian spice shipments most often go wrong.
What an HS code is
The Harmonised System is an international list of product codes, maintained by the World Customs Organisation. Almost every trading country uses it.
The code is a series of digits. The structure matters:
- The first two digits are the chapter. Chapter 09 is “Coffee, tea, maté and spices”.
- The first four digits are the heading. 0904 is pepper and dried chilli.
- The first six digits are the subheading. 0904.11 is pepper, neither crushed nor ground.
Those first six digits are the same everywhere in the world. That is the whole point of the system.
Whole and ground are different codes
This is the most frequent error in spice shipments, and it is an easy one to make.
Chapter 09 generally separates spices that are “neither crushed nor ground” from those that are. The two forms get different codes.
Some examples:
- Black pepper whole sits under 0904.11. Ground pepper sits under 0904.12.
- Dried chilli whole is 0904.21. Ground chilli is 0904.22.
- Coriander seed is 0909.21. Ground coriander is 0909.22.
Sending ground material under a whole spice code is not a technicality. It changes the duty rate in many markets. It also invites a physical inspection, because the goods do not match the paperwork, and an inspection costs time and demurrage even when everything else is correct.
Commonly used headings for Indian spices
These cover most of what leaves India.
- 0904: pepper and dried chilli.
- 0906: cinnamon and cassia.
- 0907: cloves.
- 0908: nutmeg, mace, cardamom.
- 0909: coriander, cumin, fennel and anise seeds.
- 0910: ginger, turmeric, bay leaves, fenugreek, and mixtures of spices.
- 0910.91: mixtures of spices specifically, which is where blends and masalas belong.
- 0712: dried vegetables, including dehydrated onion and garlic.
- 1207: oil seeds, including sesame and mustard.
Two of these often surprise people. Dehydrated onion and garlic are not in the spice chapter at all; they are dried vegetables. Sesame and mustard are classified as oil seeds rather than as spices, because their main global use is crushing for oil.
Blends have their own heading
A garam masala, a curry powder or a tandoori mix is a mixture. It belongs under 0910.91, not under the heading of whichever ingredient makes up most of it.
Declaring a blend as turmeric because turmeric is sixty per cent of it is a misdeclaration. It may attract a lower duty rate, which is exactly why customs authorities look for it.
The rule is straightforward: if the product is a mixture of spices sold as a mixture, it goes under the mixtures heading.
The first six digits are international. The rest are not.
This is the point that causes the most expensive mistakes, so it is worth being precise.
The six digit code is harmonised globally. Beyond six digits, each country adds its own.
India uses an eight digit code called the ITC-HS. The European Union uses an eight digit Combined Nomenclature, and a ten digit TARIC code for some purposes. The United States uses a ten digit HTS code.
The duty attaches to the full national code of the importing country. Your Indian eight digit code is not what the destination applies.
So your invoice should carry the six digit code, which is universally correct. Your buyer or their customs broker confirms the full national line at their end.
That is a five minute conversation before shipping. It prevents a container being held while somebody argues about classification with goods sitting on a quay. Why containers get held at port covers the other documents that cause the same problem.
Where classification gets genuinely difficult
A few cases are not obvious, and reasonable people disagree about them.
Crushed versus ground. Cracked pepper is not whole. Is it “crushed”? Usually yes. If your product sits between the two forms, ask the destination authority rather than guessing.
Spice with salt added. Adding salt can move a product out of Chapter 09 entirely and into the prepared foods chapters. The threshold varies.
Organic certification. Does not change the HS code, though it may change the documents required.
Retail packs versus bulk. Generally does not change the six digit code, but some national tariffs distinguish by pack size at the eight or ten digit level.
Extracts and oleoresins. These leave the spice chapter and move to Chapter 33, essential oils and resinoids. That is a large duty difference in many markets.
Preferential origin: the code matters twice
If your buyer is claiming a reduced duty rate under a trade agreement, the HS code does double duty.
It sets the normal rate, and it determines whether the goods qualify under the agreement’s rules of origin. Those rules are often written in terms of tariff headings: a product qualifies if the processing moved it from one heading to another.
So a misclassification can cost a preferential rate as well as attracting the wrong duty. If a preferential certificate of origin is being issued, the code on it must match the code on the invoice.
A short checklist before you ship
- Confirm the form: whole, cracked or ground.
- Confirm whether it is a single spice or a mixture.
- Use the correct six digit code on the invoice.
- Ask the buyer or their broker to confirm the full national code at destination.
- Make sure the invoice description matches the code in plain words.
- Make sure every document uses the same description and the same code.
- If a preferential certificate is involved, check the code matches there too.
Point five is easy to overlook. Customs compares the written description to the code. “Spices” as a description on a container of ground chilli helps nobody.
The short version
Whole and ground spices have different codes. Blends belong under the mixtures heading. The first six digits are the same worldwide and everything after that is national.
Put the six digit code and an accurate description on the invoice, then let your buyer’s broker confirm the full national line before the container moves.
Every product in our catalogue carries its HS heading on the specification sheet, which is a starting point rather than a ruling.