Imports from India have more than doubled in four years

Goods worth 10.8 billion euros were imported into the Netherlands from India in 2024, almost triple the value of imports supplied in 2020. Goods imports rose particularly steeply between 2020 and 2022. One-third of the import value of goods from India is made up of goods in transit. This means that goods from India enter the Netherlands and are then re-exported without any person or entity in the Netherlands ever becoming the legal owner of the goods. This form of trade adds comparatively little value for the Netherlands.

When the transit trade is excluded, 3.2 percent of imports from outside the European Union came from India. That compares with 2.4 percent in 2020.

Goods imports dominated by telephones

Of the 10.8 billion euros' worth of goods imported from India, 54.7 percent fell into the one of the three most commonly imported goods. These include telephones (2.7 billion euros), petroleum products such as gasoline (2.6 billion euros) and clothing (0.6 billion euros).

Of the telephones imported from India, nearly three-quarters (by value) are shipped on-wards to other countries. Petroleum products and clothing make up around 9 percent and 26 percent of the import value, respectively.

Import value of services up by two-thirds

Services imports from Inda had a value of 6.6 billion euros in 2024, up by more than 66 percent since 2020. Over a quarter of services imports from Asia originate in India. This means that India is the Netherlands’ main supplier of services in Asia.

The top three most imported services account for just over three-quarters of the total im-port value of services. 31.4 percent of services imports from India are computer services (2.1 billion euros). This category includes purchases of custom software and web hosting. This is followed by professional and management consulting services, such as administration services (1.5 billion euros) and technical, trade-related and other business services such as technical consulting services (1.5 billion euros). India was the leading Asian provider of these services.

Netherlands is the EU’s leading importer of goods from India

The Netherlands was the second largest importer of goods and services from India in the EU in 2024, receiving 16.1 percent of total EU imports from India. Only Germany imported more. In terms of goods imports alone, however, the Netherlands was the EU’s main im-porter from India.

While the value of imports of Indian goods into the Netherlands increased between 2022 and 2024, for Germany, Italy, France and Belgium it actually decreased. As far as services imports are concerned, the Netherlands has been the third-largest importer of services from India in the EU since 2021, when Ireland overtook the Netherlands.