Last month, a Shenzhen seller who ships to Saudi Arabia told me his DDP shipment had been sitting in Riyadh customs for 11 days. Cargo value: $120,000. The forwarder stopped picking up calls, and the goods were stuck in a ZATCA warehouse. This is not a one-off. Looking at my own orders, clearance holds like this have more than doubled in 2026 compared with the first half of 2025.
DDP-all-in sounds convenient. You hand over customs clearance, VAT and local delivery to the forwarder and pay one price. That model used to work because a gray channel could slip through with low declarations and mixed HS codes. But after July's customs data sync across Gulf states, officials can cross-check invoice values, VAT numbers, and even the same consignee's history across countries. If your declared price is 30% lower than the average import unit value for that HS code, you get flagged automatically. No phone call, no warning.
My experience: if unit value goes above $15, don't touch gray DDP. You might save 3-5% in customs fees and taxes, but one inspection with penalties and storage costs will eat six months of profit. And if the forwarder disappears, you have no legal claim because the shipper on the documents is technically someone else.
If you still decide to use it, at least protect yourself. First, get a written commitment stating who covers the loss if customs holds the cargo. Second, register for your own Saudi VAT number instead of sharing the forwarder's. Third, never declare below 60% of your real cost. That percentage is the line where ZATCA's algorithm starts taking a closer look.
At 8ship, we only run compliant lines, because one penalty costs far more than what the gray channel saves. So here's my question for you: would your forwarder sign that commitment?