Saudi Arabia's New Food Import Duties: What a 6% Potato Tariff Means for Exporters

Saudi Arabia has quietly redrawn its import duty schedule for food and agriculture. Under Ministry of Finance Decree No. 1447-88-10, dated 15 June 2026 and published in the Official Gazette (Umm Al-Qura), the Kingdom revised customs duties on 51 tariff lines covering livestock, meat, fish and shrimp, dairy, eggs, fruits and selected processed agricultural products, with the new rates taking effect on 26 June 2026. The change was significant enough that Indonesia's own Ministry of Trade issued a formal advisory to its exporters on 15 July 2026, flagging the revision as one that affects any country shipping these categories into Saudi Arabia — India included.

What Actually Changed

The revision moves a range of items above the GCC's standard 5% most-favoured-nation baseline. Fresh potatoes now carry a 6% duty, up from that baseline. Several livestock and meat lines sit at 6–7%, cold-water shrimp and prawns and selected cheeses are at 6%, shell eggs rose to 10%, and fresh strawberries, raspberries and mulberries now sit at 12–15%, alongside live poultry such as turkeys, ducks, geese and broiler and parent-stock chickens. Saudi authorities have framed each line item explicitly as supporting “the protection and promotion of local agricultural products,” while staying within Saudi Arabia's WTO tariff ceilings. Goods originating within the GCC Customs Union remain duty-free, and shipments from Greater Arab Free Trade Area, GCC-Singapore or GCC-EFTA partner countries may still claim preferential rates with a valid Certificate of Origin — routes that do not apply to direct India-origin shipments.

Why Potatoes, Specifically

The potato duty is not an isolated move. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and the General Authority for Statistics reported domestic potato production of 623,770 tonnes from 17,064 hectares in 2025, output the industry describes as leaving the Kingdom “largely self-sufficient” in fresh potatoes, grown across two seasons in Riyadh, Hail, Al-Jouf, Qassim and Tabuk. During the domestic growing and harvest windows, MEWA already restricts fresh potato imports and exports to protect local growers, lifting those restrictions under special permits in the off-season. The new 6% duty adds a second, year-round layer of friction on top of that seasonal licensing regime, at the same time as demand is reportedly opening up for processed potato products (frozen cuts, speciality red and baby potatoes) for Saudi Arabia's hotel, restaurant and café sector.

Business Takeaway

For Indian exporters of fresh potatoes and other fresh vegetables into the Gulf, the practical lesson isn't that Saudi Arabia is closing its doors — it is that bulk, undifferentiated fresh supply is exactly where a self-sufficiency-driven market applies the most pressure. Before quoting a Saudi buyer on fresh potatoes, it's worth checking current HS classification and duty rate with your customs broker, confirming whether your shipment window falls inside MEWA's import-restricted season, and pricing in the 6% duty on top of freight rather than assuming last year's landed cost still holds. It's also worth looking at where the Saudi market is still genuinely open — processed and speciality potato formats for HORECA buyers, and the wider fresh vegetable range where India's cost and quality position remains competitive. More broadly, this is a reminder that Vision 2030-style food-security policy is now a recurring feature of Gulf sourcing, not a one-off: exporters who build country-specific tariff and seasonal-licensing checks into their quoting process will spend less time re-costing orders after the fact.