1. Write the specification first
Before you approach anyone, decide what you are actually buying: product and variety, class, calibre or count, pack format, monthly volume, Incoterm and destination port. Suppliers quote against a spec. Without one you receive numbers that cannot be compared, and you will be steered towards whatever the seller has most of.
Our guide to grading sets out the full checklist. Ten minutes on it saves a fortnight of circular emails.
2. Vet the supplier before you discuss price
Ask for four things, and read them rather than filing them:
- Certificates, with numbers you can verify against the issuing body's database. A PDF is not evidence; a verifiable certificate number is.
- Export references in your own market, ideally a buyer you can call.
- The packhouse — photographs, a video walkthrough, or a visit. Ask whether they own it or buy through a trader.
- Residue results from a recent lot of the product you want.
That last one matters more than most buyers realise. Pesticide residues are the single largest cause of EU border rejections for fresh produce — of roughly 600 RASFF notifications for fruit and vegetables recorded in 2024, around 85% concerned pesticides. The liability sits with the importer.
3. Take samples, and be specific about them
Ask for samples of the exact grade and calibre you intend to buy, not a general selection. For frozen product, insist the sample ships frozen — a thawed sample tells you nothing about the tunnel and everything about the courier. Keep a retained portion so you have a reference to compare the first container against.
4. Understand what your Incoterm actually buys
Incoterms decide where cost and risk transfer from seller to buyer. Four cover most produce trade:
| EXW | Ex Works. You collect from the packhouse. Everything after that — inland haulage, export clearance, freight, insurance — is yours. Rarely sensible unless you have an agent in Egypt. |
|---|---|
| FOB | Free On Board. Seller delivers, clears for export and loads at the named port. Risk passes on loading. You arrange and pay ocean freight and insurance. The most common term for buyers with their own freight rates. |
| CFR | Cost and Freight. Seller pays freight to the destination port, but risk still passes at loading. Note the gap: the seller is paying for a voyage whose risk you carry. |
| CIF | Cost, Insurance and Freight. As CFR, plus the seller buys marine insurance on your behalf. Check the level of cover — the Incoterms default is minimum cover, which may not be what you would choose. |
Compare quotes on the same term or you are not comparing anything. An FOB price and a CIF price for the same product can differ by 10–15% purely on freight and insurance.
5. Agree payment terms that protect both sides
Common structures in the Egyptian trade:
- T/T deposit and balance — typically 30% on order confirmation, 70% against a scanned bill of lading. Simple, fast, and the norm for established relationships.
- Cash against documents (CAD) — documents released through banks on payment. More protection for both sides than open T/T, with modest bank fees.
- Letter of credit — strongest protection, highest cost and paperwork burden. Sensible for large first orders; heavy for routine repeat business.
A supplier who insists on 100% prepayment from a new buyer, or a buyer who insists on full credit from a new supplier, is asking the other party to carry all the risk. A staged structure is the normal middle ground.
6. Production, and an inspection you control
For a first shipment, book an independent pre-shipment inspection. A third-party inspector checks grade, calibre, pack, weights, labelling and container condition, and takes photographs before the doors close. It costs a few hundred dollars and is the cheapest insurance in the whole process — because once a container has sailed, your leverage is gone.
7. The document set
Every shipment travels with a standard file. Missing or inconsistent documents are the most common cause of delay at the far end, and demurrage on a reefer is expensive.
- Commercial invoice and packing list — must agree with each other exactly, down to weights and carton counts.
- Bill of lading — the title document.
- Phytosanitary certificate — issued by the Egyptian plant protection authority, certifying freedom from quarantine pests. Required for most fresh plant products entering the EU.
- Health certificate where the destination requires it.
- Certificate of origin.
- EUR.1 movement certificate — the proof of preferential origin under the EU–Egypt Association Agreement, whose agricultural annex has applied since June 2010. Origin rules follow the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention. Without it you pay full duty on goods that may have qualified for preference, so confirm it is issued before shipment rather than after.
For EU entry, consignments requiring plant-health control are pre-notified through the TRACES system and presented with a Common Health Entry Document at the border control post. Your customs agent normally handles this, but the phytosanitary certificate has to exist and match the consignment for any of it to work.
8. Shipping and transit
Egyptian produce loads mainly at Damietta, Alexandria and Port Said. Transit to Mediterranean Europe is short — typically under a week to Italian and Spanish ports, roughly one to two weeks to Northern Europe, longer to the UK and the Gulf depending on routing. That proximity is the structural advantage Egypt has over Southern Hemisphere origins on the European market.
Book reefer space early in peak season. Confirm the temperature set point in writing on the booking, and require a data logger in the container — see our cold chain guide for why that record matters.
9. Arrival, and what to do in the first hour
Take pulp temperatures at the door before unloading. Download the data logger. Open cartons from several pallets, not just the front. Photograph anything questionable with the container number visible.
If there is a problem, notify the supplier and the carrier the same day, in writing. Most contracts and marine policies have short notification windows, and a claim raised a week later against a container already unloaded and dispersed is very hard to sustain.
A realistic timeline
| Spec to quotation | 1–3 days |
|---|---|
| Samples | 1–2 weeks including courier |
| Contract and deposit | 2–5 days |
| Production and packing | 1–3 weeks, season depending |
| Documents and booking | 3–7 days |
| Ocean transit | 4–20 days by destination |
| Clearance | 1–5 days |
Six to ten weeks from first enquiry to a container on your dock is normal for a first shipment. Repeat orders on an agreed spec run far faster, because everything above is already settled.
If you are ready to start, send us your spec and we will come back with a quotation, the certificate pack and a sample offer.