Frequently Asked Questions

It runs the buying for you. That means writing the specification, finding suppliers who can genuinely meet it, checking those suppliers are real and solvent, putting the price against the market, negotiating the contract, arranging inspection before the cargo loads, and managing the shipping and paperwork through to delivery. You approve the decisions. Someone else does the work and carries the detail.

A broker introduces two parties and steps back. Their job ends when you and the supplier are talking, and they typically earn from the sell side, which means they are not incentivised to push the price down. A procurement agent acts for the buyer and stays in the transaction: verification, contract, inspection, documents, delivery. If something goes wrong at the port, a broker is a phone number and an agent is the party fixing it.

Often yes, and sometimes you should. Buying direct works when you have an established relationship, in-house capacity to verify the counterparty, and enough volume that the producer will deal with you at all. It goes wrong when you are new to an origin, buying below the volume a producer cares about, or relying on a website and a WhatsApp number to establish that a company exists.

Three situations, usually. You are entering a new origin and have no way to tell a real exporter from a convincing one. You have outgrown informal buying and a failed shipment now costs real money. Or the commodity carries compliance obligations, EUDR, FLEGT, OECD, that sit on you as the importer regardless of what the supplier tells you.

It depends on what you need. Producers give you traceability, consistency and usually a better price, but they want volume and will not flex on specification. Traders aggregate, so they can fill a mixed or smaller order and hold stock closer to you, at a margin and with a longer chain to document. For anything EUDR-regulated, the shorter chain is worth paying for.

Agricultural commodities, raw materials, and precious and base metals. The catalogue on this site runs to more than 200 commodities across grains, soft commodities, pulses, nuts, oils, dairy, livestock, forest products, resins, fibres, industrial inputs and metals. If what you need is not listed, ask. The list reflects what we are asked for most, not the limit of what we handle.

Start from the specification, not the supplier. Once you know the grade, tolerances and certification you need, the field of companies that can actually deliver it narrows sharply. From there the work is verification: company registration, export licence, trading history, bank references, and physical evidence that the facility exists. A supplier who cannot produce those quickly is telling you something.

Verify the entity, not the website. Confirm the company is registered where it claims, holds a current export licence for the commodity, and appears on no sanctions list, along with its owners and its bank. Ask for references from buyers in your own market. Then have someone physically visit or inspect before any money moves. Documents can be fabricated. A warehouse cannot.

The recurring patterns are worth knowing. Payment demanded up front by wire to a personal or third-country account. A price meaningfully below the market with urgency attached. Warehouse receipts for material nobody has independently seen. A change of bank details mid-transaction, which is almost always email compromise. The protections are dull and effective: independent inspection before release, a letter of credit rather than an advance, and verifying any change of banking details by phone on a number you already had.

KYC and KYB screening on the company and the people behind it, sanctions and adverse media checks, confirmation of export licensing, financial standing, and evidence of production capacity at the volume you need. For metals it extends to OECD due diligence on the mine and chain of custody. For EUDR commodities it extends to geolocation of the plot the material came from.

Appoint an independent inspection agency at origin. They draw samples, test against the contracted specification, verify quantity and check the packaging, and they do it before the cargo is released for loading. Their certificate is what any later claim rests on. Inspecting on arrival tells you that you have a problem but leaves you holding it.

Incoterms are the standard rules that fix where the seller's responsibility ends and yours begins: who arranges freight, who insures, who clears customs, and at what point risk passes. Which one suits you depends on how much of the chain you want to control. Taking more control lowers the price and raises the work.

Under FOB the seller delivers the goods onto the vessel and risk passes to you at that point; you arrange and pay for the sea freight and insurance. Under CIF the seller arranges freight and insurance to the destination port, though risk still passes to you at loading. CIF looks simpler and usually costs more, because the seller books the freight and takes a margin on it. FOB gives you control of the freight and of the insurance cover actually bought.

A letter of credit is your bank's undertaking to pay the seller once the seller presents documents that exactly match the terms agreed, typically the bill of lading, invoice, packing list and inspection certificate. It protects both sides: the seller ships knowing payment is committed, and you pay only against proof of shipment. The detail matters. A discrepancy as small as a spelling difference can delay payment, which is why the terms are worth drafting carefully rather than copying.

The specification with tolerances against each parameter rather than a single target. Quantity with a stated variance. Incoterms and named port. Inspection: who appoints, at whose cost, and whose certificate is final. What happens if the cargo lands out of specification, including price adjustment and rejection thresholds. Documents required for payment. Governing law and how disputes are resolved. A contract without tolerances gives you nothing to point at when a cargo lands marginally out.

That depends entirely on what the contract says and what the inspection certificate shows. With a pre-shipment certificate and written tolerances, an out-of-specification cargo triggers an agreed remedy: price adjustment on a sliding scale, replacement, or rejection above a threshold. Without them you are in an argument with somebody in another jurisdiction. This is the single most common reason a procurement goes badly.

A quotation in invoice form. It sets out the goods, specification, quantity, price, Incoterms and payment terms before anything is committed, and you will typically need it to open a letter of credit or apply for an import licence. It is not a demand for payment and it is not a contract.

As a baseline: commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill, and a customs declaration. Beyond that it depends on the commodity. Food and plant products need a phytosanitary certificate and often pre-notification. Animal products need a veterinary health certificate and a CHED lodged before arrival. Preferential duty needs a certificate of origin. Timber, cocoa, coffee, palm oil and soy carry EUDR obligations. Metals commonly need an assay certificate.

Yes, if you are importing commercially into the UK you need a GB EORI number, and a separate EU EORI if you are also importing into the EU. It identifies you to customs and without it your goods stop at the border. It is free and quick to obtain, and it is worth having before you need it.

The EU Deforestation Regulation covers cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood, and anything derived from them. It requires you to show the material was produced legally and on land not deforested after 31 December 2020, with geolocation coordinates for the plot of origin. The obligation falls on the business placing the product on the market. That is you, not your supplier, and a supplier's own declaration does not discharge it.

A document stating where the goods were produced, issued or certified by a chamber of commerce or equivalent body in the exporting country. Customs use it to apply the right duty rate, so under a trade agreement it can be the difference between paying tariff and not. It is also increasingly requested as evidence in sanctions screening.

An official certificate from the exporting country's plant health authority confirming the consignment has been inspected and is free of quarantine pests. Plant and plant-derived products generally cannot clear customs without one. It has to be issued before shipment, which is why it is a contract requirement rather than something arranged afterwards.

Three things at once: a receipt that the carrier has the goods, the contract of carriage, and a document of title. That last part matters, because whoever holds an original negotiable bill of lading controls the cargo. It is why bills of lading sit at the centre of letter of credit transactions, and why their handling is worth getting right.

Yes, where the certification is available for that commodity and origin. The requirement has to be in the brief from the start: it narrows which suppliers qualify, it affects the price, and the certificate has to be issued by a body your own market recognises. A certificate from an unrecognised body is worth very little at the point a retail buyer asks for it.

Sea freight from West Africa to Northern Europe runs roughly two to three weeks, from South and Southeast Asia four to six, from South America three to five. Add time at both ends for inspection, documents and customs, and add contingency for port congestion, which is routine rather than exceptional. Air freight is days rather than weeks and is rarely economic outside high-value material.

A 20 ft container typically carries 20 to 27 tonnes depending on the commodity, and is weight-limited rather than volume-limited for most bulk goods. A 40 ft container carries more volume but a similar payload, so it suits low-density material. Below a full container you are into groupage, which costs more per tonne and adds handling. Bulk vessels start in the thousands of tonnes.

Yes. Carrier liability is limited by international convention to an amount well below the value of most commodity cargoes, so without separate marine cargo cover a loss largely falls on you. Under CIF the seller insures, but often to the minimum permitted level, which is worth checking rather than assuming.

Demurrage is what the carrier charges when a container sits at the port beyond the free time allowed, and detention is the equivalent for holding the container after collection. Both accrue daily and both are avoidable. The cause is nearly always documents arriving after the cargo, so the fix is having customs paperwork complete and lodged before the vessel berths.

We do, working with licensed customs brokers at the destination. Clearance is prepared in advance from the shipping documents rather than started on arrival, because that is what keeps a container moving through the port instead of accruing charges while a missing certificate is chased.

More than 40 across West and East Africa, South and Southeast Asia, South America, Europe and the Middle East. Origin is not a preference. It determines which phytosanitary and licensing rules apply, what specification is achievable, how the freight routes, and what sanctions exposure you take on. We choose it against your compliance and delivery requirements.

No, and it is worth being plain about that. Logridge is one office, in London. When we say we source from more than 40 countries we mean our verified supplier network reaches them, not that we hold premises or staff there. Physical checks at origin are carried out by independent inspection agencies we appoint and pay for on your behalf, which is deliberate: an inspector with no stake in the cargo is worth more to you than one of our own people would be.

The practical floor is set by the commodity and the origin rather than by us. Most bulk agricultural commodities start at a full container, because below that the freight cost per tonne stops making sense and many exporters will not quote. Metals and high-value ingredients work at smaller volumes. Tell us what you need and we will tell you straight whether the volume is workable.

The commodity and grade, with tolerances rather than a single target figure. Volume, and whether this is one shipment or a recurring requirement. Destination port and the date you need it landed. Any certification: organic, Halal, Kosher, RSPO, FSC. Preferred Incoterms and payment instrument. Packaging format and labelling. The more precise the brief, the less negotiation happens after the contract is signed.

Two to six weeks for most agricultural commodities, longer where the material is seasonal and you are between harvests. Metals and anything requiring specific compliance documentation take longer. We give you an indicative timeline with the initial proposal rather than after you have committed.

Both. A one-off is usually a first transaction, a substitution when an existing supplier fails, or a test of a new origin. Ongoing supply is structured differently: a framework agreement, an agreed call-off schedule, and continuity of specification so the material is the same batch after batch. For anything going into a formulated product, that continuity is usually the point.

Ask. The catalogue reflects what we are asked for most often, not a boundary. If it is something we cannot properly source or verify, we will say so rather than take the work and find out later.

Manufacturers, refiners, contractors and housebuilders, wholesalers and distributors, and government-linked procurement teams. Also founder-led food, drinks and cosmetics brands that have outgrown informal buying. The two look very different and get the same process, the same checks and the same paperwork.