India’s soybean import surge draws customs scrutiny over Niger origin claims

Why India needed African beans

India permits only non-GM soybeans to be imported, which narrows the field to a few African countries, among them Benin, Niger, Togo and Nigeria. Non-GM beans from these origins have sold at a premium to global benchmark prices.

The buying followed a short domestic crop. Dry weather after last year’s floods cut output, and estimates of the 2025-26 decline run from 14% to 17% depending on the source. Domestic soybean prices reached a four-year high by May, and Indian traders cancelled soymeal export contracts for the first time since 2021.

The Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA) raised its import forecast for the season ending September to 900,000 tons from 600,000 tons, after May imports alone reached 200,000 tons. Poultry is the largest consumer of soymeal in India, and the industry had counted on the extra arrivals to ease feed costs.

Where the inquiry stands

Customs had let the cargoes through on origin and phytosanitary certificates issued by Niger. Notices began reaching importers in late September, asking for proof of the overland journey, including transit permits, and noting that the tonnage looks out of line with what Niger can grow and export. Niger is landlocked, so beans declared there can legitimately move through Nigeria or other neighbors on the way to port, which explains the interest in transit paperwork.

Importers said they lack some of the records and have asked their overseas suppliers to provide them. One importer who received a notice told Reuters the company bought the beans on its suppliers’ word that they came from Niger, and that travelling to Africa to check the origin was not practical.

A finding of wrong origin would remove the least-developed-country exemption that Niger enjoys, and the full 45% tariff would apply, sources told Reuters. A Dubai-based exporter said importers have stopped buying Niger-declared beans, and that cargoes at ports or afloat are likely to get stuck because neither side wants to pay the duty.

Nothing in the reporting shows that Nigerian exporters or the Nigerian government took part in any misdeclaration, a point The Whistler made in its coverage.

Nigeria’s supply and what the numbers allow

Nigeria is Africa’s largest soybean producer. The US Department of Agriculture puts its 2025/26 crop at 1.5 million tons from 1.4 million hectares. An attaché report from the USDA’s Lagos office, published in 2024, forecast Nigerian soybean exports at 212,000 tons for 2024/25. The Niger-declared volume that reached India in seven months of 2026 is nearly 1.8 times that forecast.

The comparison gives only a sense of scale. The forecast predates this year’s Indian demand, and Nigerian export data for 2026 would be needed to judge how much Nigerian supply could have been involved.

A route customs has seen before

Questions about African routing are not new. In 2018, Business Standard quoted industry officials saying traders had been sending soybean and soy seed consignments through least developed African countries, Ethiopia and Benin in particular, to benefit from the nil tariff, at a time when the regular duty was around 45%.

One official put the volume at about 80,000 tons a year. The quantity declared from Niger alone in the first seven months of this year is nearly five times that annual estimate.

What it means for feed buyers

Reuters noted that the episode could give Togo and Benin a chance to expand soybean exports to India through official channels.

nutriNews Asia reported earlier this year that processors expected soybean availability to stay constrained until the new domestic crop arrives in September and October. Whether the inquiry changes that picture depends on how many cargoes are held and how quickly importers can produce their documents, and neither has been reported. No demand for duty has been reported so far, and the outcome of the document checks is not yet known.