Delhi: Shipping in Foodstuffs..

Blue Topaz

Hi,

Does anyone know if you have to pay duties on shipping in foodstuffs for personal consumption?

I'm investigating shipping in baby formula, various tinned products like Heinz spaghetti, etc.

Also has anyone had any experience on using companies like www.expatdirect.co.uk or www.britishsupermarketworldwid e.com ?

Thanks

Nick-H

If you tell us which city you are heading for, people can tell you if what you want is available there anyway.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

Blue Topaz

We're going to be living around DLF Phase V.

We just got home from a couple of days and we only managed a walkaround Spencers at Mega Mall. I was hoping there would be more range in Western foods as I had got the impression this was more western-orientated.

I have 3 fussy eating kids so need to wean them gently! A hit list of what I couldn't see but would like to have a supply of would be:

Baby formula milk SMA Progress or similar
Heinz beans / spaghetti / soup
Weetabix
Plain and self-raising flour
Gravy granules and packet cheese sauces
Tinned tuna

There was quite a bit of other stuff but this was the main really. If anyone can point in the right direction that would be great.

Thanks

fly2raven

We shipped everything from California to Bangalore and along with our furniture we shipped quite a bit of miscellaneous food. Canned food, boxed cereal, power bars etc...we had absolutely no problem with this. We included the items on the packing list as 'house hold items'

The only things that we had to pay duty for was our electronic equipment - and I even took in new dining chairs, table and futon - they didn't care about any of that. But of course, your experience could be different.

There are some items on your list that should be available in Delhi - Heinz Beans and tinned tuna (you can't find canned chicken here though). You may not be able to find 'Weetabix' but probably something similar (that is a cereal right?)

I have seen packets of cheese sauces but not of gravy and plain flour is readily available. I recently found canned soup (cream of mushroom) but it is rare, golden corn is more readily available as corn is popular here.

Although the canned items are available they are much more expensive here. My cream of mushroom soup was 75rs whereas I can pick that up for much cheaper in the US...same thing with the tuna...so if you are going to be paying for the space anyway it may be cheaper for you to bring it.

My shopping experience is in Bangalore, but I would expect the same items to be available in Delhi somewhere. And one thing about Spencers is that they are not really stocked very well. Meaning that they may carry many of the items that you were looking for but are waiting for them or haven't yet noticed that they were out to order them.

The Spencers that is close to our apartment has not had milk for weeks at a time, was out of yogurt for three days...even rotis were out for over a month...so you will find yourself buying all of the items you find to stock up (if you need them at that time or not) because you never know if they will still be available the next time you go shopping.

brownboy66

Hmmm...aren't all kids fussy? I know ours can be....

Pretty much all the stuff on your list is here in Delhi. The baby formula, baby food, nappies, etc - all here - but not swimmers (depending on how young your children are - and should you want to take them swimming). Heinz products - maybe not all the time, but its here (or something equally expensive compared to the locally produced baked beans). Weetabix - haven't seen that specifically but plenty of other breakfast fodder. The flour could be tricky. We brought a bread maker and haven't used it as we weren't able to find the right stuff (plus the supermarket bread was good, and our house keeper bakes cakes and biscuits for us anyway). Gravy, tinned tuna - yep, its all here.

Our food shopping is split between a couple of places - our house keeper goes to INA markets, and we go to Le Marche at modern bazaar in Vasant Vihar. Plenty of stock - and no shortage of choice. There's nothing we lack compared to home..