Once a lifeline of taste and memory for Telugu students abroad, the homemade pickle trade — worth hundreds of crores — has received a big blow in the wake of high US tariffs, bans, and customs crackdowns
“Gongura! Chicken!! What else shall I pack for you? The chicken is from our own backyard — Rs 900 a kilo, boneless at Rs 1,400. Gongura is Rs 650 for half a kilo… ariselu at Rs 900 a kilo. All of it fresh, sir, straight from us,” says a shopkeeper near Gunadala Ring Road in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), haggling with a customer.
“What kind of packing do you want, madam — America, or the UK? We have a special package just for the US,” declares a small-time trader to a housewife in Hyderabad’s S.R. Nagar. “Hello, is this the FedEx agency? I’m sending you my address… I need to courier something to America. When can you come?” pleads a householder from KPHB Phase IV, Hyderabad. All this is now part of the past after the US imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India.
By 2024, the Telugu-speaking population in America had risen to 1.23 million — almost four times the 320,000 recorded in 2016. More than half were students and professionals. During the Covid years of 2019 alone, more than 150,000 Telugu students landed in the United States. And for every student who left home, at least once in a month or two, a food packet followed from Telangana or Andhra Pradesh.
According to Hyderabad Air Cargo records, 120,000 food parcels flew to America in 2018-19. By 2021-22, the number had doubled to 2,45,000. Large courier companies built entire businesses around this trade, creating specialized food-packaging services, turning the export of pickles into a full-fledged economy.
Every box heading for America contained something: gongura, mango pickle, coconut-spice powders, peanut powders, mutton pickles, ariselu, bobbatlu, murukulu. “The moment a jar of gongura or mutton pickle from Hyderabad arrived, the whole room turned festive,” students would say.
The impact of high U.S. tariff
At one point, Telugu associations estimated that the pickle trade from the Telugu states to America was worth Rs 400–500 crore annually. Between 2015 and 2020, at least 1,500 to 2,000 small packing units had sprung up in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Bhimavaram, Visakhapatnam. Each unit turned out 50-100 jars of pickle a day. According to a 2019 ICMR–NIN study, 10,000-12,000 women were directly employed in this cottage industry.
A pickle store in Andhra Pradesh. The “de minimis” exemption — duty-free for goods up to $800 — was scrapped on August 29. Even a small food packet now attracts duty. Photo: Amaraiah Akula
But things changed after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) brought in stringent food-safety norms, including a total ban on meat-based pickles; mandatory lab certification for food items; and restrictions on homemade food parcels through United States Postal Service (USPS). Courier tariffs have shot up, with each package costing over Rs 5,000 to send. Conversations began to change too: “Neeraja… I got some chilli pickle from Guntur, shall I send it to you?” asks a mother. “No, Amma… things are very difficult here. If I really need it, I’ll let you know. It may be better to buy it here, even if it’s more expensive,” replies her daughter from America.
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“For five or six months now, the pickle shipments have reduced. Taxes, inspections… customers have stopped ordering, packers have closed down,” sighs a pickle seller in Tirupati. “The courier business has declined. Too many rules now. The US market is shrinking,” admits a courier agent in Gachibowli.
Hundreds of small pickle units across the Telugu states have shuttered. “Sixty per cent of our business has vanished. We had no choice but to close down,” laments a pickle-maker in Vijayawada.
Decline in exports
From August 27, 2025, U.S. tariffs on Indian goods doubled from 25% to 50%. Even small parcels are now taxed. The “de minimis” exemption — duty-free for goods up to $800 — was scrapped on August 29. Even a small food packet now attracts duty.
According to U.S. customs rules, acidified foods, including pickles, are under strict watch —any mislabelling could mean seizure or outright rejection. And so, parents in India are being told by their children in America: “Don’t send homemade pickles. It’s too risky, they’ll get seized.”
U.S. Food and Drug Administration has brought in stringent food-safety norms, including a total ban on meat-based pickles; mandatory lab certification for food items; and restrictions on homemade food parcels through USPS.
Just a little way off the Gunadala Ring Road in Vijayawada stood a shop — no signboard, only jars and boxes stacked high. Until a few months ago, it bustled with customers, shipping vegetarian and non-vegetarian pickles, sweets, and savouries to America. Buying here meant lower packing costs than elsewhere. Today, the crowds have vanished; the jars sit unsent.
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Where once every street corner had a “parcel service,” now shutters stay down. Signboards that proclaimed “Andhra Pickles,” “Homemade Sweets,” “Perfect Packing” are quietly disappearing. A trade that once boomed is fading in the shadow of Trump-era tariffs and U.S. regulations.
By 2024, nearly 60% of small units had closed. Formal export records still show bulk shipments of “pickles/chutneys” from India to the U.S. — 21,445 shipments were recorded up to August 2025 — but compared to earlier years, the decline is stark.
What next?
The new restrictions have only just taken effect. Their full impact remains to be seen. Yet already, the flow of pickles abroad has slowed to a trickle. “In a foreign land, even when there is no real problem, a kind of ‘psycho-fear’ takes hold,” says Ch. Madhu Babu, owner of Swagruha Foods. “Unlike earlier, people simply don’t send anymore.”
The jars of pickle may well have become a memory. What once carried the taste of home and gave livelihood to thousands of rural women is now faltering under international barriers. With tariffs, certifications, courier limits, the gongura pickle jar that once travelled across the oceans to a student’s dorm room in America now seems like a dream.
Market logic says it clearly: pickles will no longer travel as gifts from home. They will go only as factory-sealed, certified “commercial products.” This may well mark the end of an era — the age of pickles in the Telugu diaspora.