Export readiness: the twelve questions a Gulf buyer will ask a Canadian supplier
Readiness is not a certificate. It is twelve answers you can give without checking, in the buyer's order, with a document behind each one.
The short answer
- Product: specification, certification, shelf life, labelling in Arabic and English, packaging for the climate.
- Paperwork: certificate of origin, the right export classification, the import requirements of the destination, any product registration.
- Money: price in the buyer's terms, payment terms you can carry, currency, who insures what.
- People: who answers the phone in the Gulf time zone, who signs, who visits.
Product
- What is the exact specification, in the buyer's units?
- Which certifications does the product carry, and which does the destination require? For food, halal certification is commonly asked for; confirm the certifying body the buyer accepts.
- What is the shelf life and the packaging, and does it survive forty degrees in a container?
- Is the label ready in Arabic and English, with the destination's required fields?
Paperwork
- What is the export classification, and have you confirmed it rather than guessed? The showcase marks indicative codes as indicative for a reason.
- Can you issue a certificate of origin and the commercial documents the buyer's customs expect?
- Does the product need registration with a destination authority before sale, and who holds it?
- Who is the importer of record?
Rules and forms change; the Trade Commissioner Service and the destination authority's own pages are the sources, not this guide.
Money
- What is the price on the buyer's incoterm, not yours? The landed cost calculator gets you from one to the other.
- What payment terms can you carry, and what does a letter of credit cost you?
- Which currency, and who carries the movement?
People
- Who answers in the Gulf working week and time zone (the UAE moved to a Monday to Friday week in 2022; Saudi Arabia works Sunday to Thursday), and who can sign without a call back to Canada?
A buyer who gets twelve answers in one conversation moves to specification and sample. A buyer who gets six moves to the next supplier.
Checklist
- Specification sheet in the buyer's units
- Certifications listed against the destination's requirements
- Export classification confirmed
- Price on the buyer's incoterm
- A named person for Gulf hours
Mistakes we see
- Guessing the classification
- Quoting FOB to a buyer who thinks in landed cost
- A label in English only
- Nobody available in Gulf hours
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