Buying Guides

FOB or CIF? The wrong choice does not change the tea — it changes who controls the freight, the insurance and the risk during the 30+ days your container is at sea. What Each Term Actually Includes (Incoterms 2020) FOB (Free On Board, e.g. FOB Ningbo): the seller delivers the goods on board the vessel […]

For West African tea importers, ocean freight can move the landed cost per tonne by 5–15% within a single quarter. You cannot control the market — but you can control how you buy it. The Main Routes Shanghai / Ningbo → Dakar (Senegal) — the classic Senegal/Mali corridor. Ningbo / Shanghai → Cotonou (Benin), Lomé

Missing paperwork delays containers at destination ports — and demurrage eats margin faster than any price negotiation. Here is the complete document checklist for a bulk tea shipment from China. Core Documents (every shipment) Commercial Invoice — item numbers, grade, unit price, Incoterm (FOB/CIF), total value. Packing List — bag/carton counts, net & gross weight,

“How much tea fits in one container?” is the first logistics question in every bulk inquiry. The answer depends on packing format — here are the working numbers we use for planning. Bulk Woven-Bag Packing (25–30 kg bags) Container Green/black tea (dense leaf) Notes 20GP ≈ 10–12 MT Standard for West Africa / Central Asia

Tea is a plant product, so buyers sometimes assume Halal certification is unnecessary. In practice, Halal certification is a commercial requirement across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia — retailers and importers demand it, and Saudi customs authorities increasingly check for conformity documentation. What Halal Covers for Tea Pure tea is Halal by

The European Union operates the strictest pesticide-residue regime in the tea trade. If you import tea into Germany, France, Spain or anywhere in the EU, this is the compliance baseline. Regulation (EC) 396/2005 — the 0.01 ppm Default The EU sets maximum residue limits (MRLs) per substance. For any active substance not specifically listed for

A single residue failure at EU or Japanese customs can cost a season’s margin — the tea is destroyed or returned at your expense. Residue risk is controllable if you qualify the supplier and the lot, in that order. 1. Qualify the Supplier, Not the Sample Ask where the tea is grown: single-contracted high-mountain gardens

Moisture and broken-tea content are the two parameters behind most bulk-tea disputes. Both are testable with simple equipment — here is how buyers verify them before and after shipment. Moisture Test (target ≤ 6.5–7.0%) Laboratory method (reference): 5 g of tea, oven at 103±2°C for 4 hours (GB 5009.3); reweigh to 0.001 g. Moisture %

Before you commit a container, you can judge 80% of green tea quality with three checks — dry leaf, liquor and leaf base — plus two contract parameters. Here is the method our QC uses on every lot. 1. Dry Leaf Judgment Twist integrity (条索): high grades show tight, thin, uniform rolls; loose, broad, ragged

White tea is the fastest-growing premium tea category in Europe and North America — and also the category where grade confusion costs importers the most margin. This guide compares the two workhorse grades, Shou Mei (寿眉) and Bai Mu Dan / White Peony (白牡丹), and shows how to select the right one for your program.