Business Email for Exporters
in Kolkata

Exporters in Kolkata: what the practice actually looks like

Kolkata's export trade is old, brokered and commodity-heavy. Tea from the Assam and Dooars gardens is auctioned and shipped through the city, jute and jute diversified products come from the mills along the Hooghly, and leather goods move out of the Bantala and Topsia tanning cluster. Engineering goods, tea chests and agricultural commodities flow to Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan by land through Petrapole and the northern land customs stations, which makes Kolkata one of the few Indian export hubs where a large share of trade never touches a vessel. Sea cargo moves through Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port at Kidderpore and the deeper Haldia Dock Complex, with draft constraints at Kolkata pushing bigger loads to Haldia. The trading community around Strand Road, Burrabazar and Netaji Subhas Road still runs a great deal of business through long-standing agent relationships and correspondence rather than portals.

Kolkata is the commercial gateway to eastern India. Burrabazar is one of the country’s largest wholesale trading markets, the old Dalhousie district still holds head offices, banks and shipping agents, and Salt Lake Sector V with New Town has built a substantial IT and BPO corridor. The city remains the centre of India’s jute industry and a historic hub of the tea trade.

Kolkata hosts one of the world’s oldest tea auction centres and remains the administrative heart of India’s jute industry, which is concentrated along the Hooghly. The Kolkata Port Trust, India’s oldest operating major port, still serves a large hinterland covering eastern India, Nepal and Bhutan.

For the profession-wide picture — how exporters across India handle enquiry intake, document exchange, and record retention over email — see our guide for exporters.