Step one: the sample parcel
Samples come from running production and are free; the courier is at your cost. A food sample entering the US still needs an FDA prior notice, which the courier’s paperwork carries with the producer’s registration data. Ask for the lines you are unsure about: the cocoa-butter and the compound version of the same bar, the 30 and 15 per cent spreads, coloured dragées, because photographs never show a colour reliably.
Step two: the offer that names the producer
Send a list of lines, formats and the destination warehouse. Within two working days you receive a written offer in US dollars: FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP, and for every line the producer’s name, the minimum, the case and pallet data, the tariff heading and the FDA registration status. The producer’s technical data sheet comes with it, with ingredients, allergens and shelf life. Certificates are issued in the producer’s name; we are an export company, not the factory, and we do not claim them as ours.
Step three: the first container in two halves
Payment is by bank transfer, half with the order and half before the container leaves Mersin. Before the second half you receive the loading photographs: pallets, cases, seal and container number. A first container does not have to be one product; it is usually six or seven lines from several Gaziantep producers, chocolate, Turkish delight, dragées, confectionery and spread, each on its own pallet with its own minimum, so the risk is spread and the shelf is full on the first delivery.
What stays on your side
The Importer Security Filing before loading, the entry and prior notice at arrival through your broker, the FSVP file, the US label. We feed each of them with documents and data, early. What we do not do is promise transit days; the carrier states them in the offer, and in the warm months a reefer is quoted for the chocolate line.
What the offer does not contain
No transit days the carrier has not confirmed, no shelf life that is not on the producer’s data sheet, no certificate that is not in the producer’s name, and no prices on the website. Lines outside our range, couverture, bulk chocolate by the kilo, raw nuts, baklava, are sourced on request and quoted only after the producer confirms composition and format. What the offer does contain is, for every line, who makes it, what it costs, what the case weighs and which tariff heading it carries, so the broker, the FSVP file and the label all start from the same document.
What to send
The lines you want, the formats, the quantities you have in mind and the warehouse address. That is enough for the sample parcel and the offer; the rest of the questions, label, route, reefer, tariff heading, are answered in the same document rather than in a second round. If you already work with a customs broker, send the broker’s contact as well, so the registration data and the packing list reach them before the container is loaded.
Can I start with a pallet instead of a container?
The unit is a container; a pallet to an importer is possible by arrangement. Samples go out first in every case.
When do I pay the second half?
Before the container leaves Mersin, after you have received the loading photographs.
Who issues the certificates?
The producer of each line, in its own name. We put them in the file with the offer.
