How to place an order for superfoods from Peru

by Steven Nyland, OrganicCrops. Posted on 06 October 2022, 15:02 hrs

Ordering products from OrganicCrops and have them shipped to your country is easy. There is however some homework and paperwork involved. In this article we’ll discuss the process of importing organic and conventional superfood products from Peru.
We recommend you also read the article about all you need to know about importing from Peru.

Step 1 – Logistics Partner

If you have not yet imported before it is important that you research a logistics partner that can help you with the import process. Freight agents, freight forwarders, customs agents or companies that offer all of these services are suitable logistics partners. Your logistics partner can advise you on the import document requirements, customs requirements, storage and transport to your warehouse. Choose a logistics partner that has representation or experience in the (air/sea) port you are shipping to. It is not required but it does make dealing with local processes more effective.

Step 2 – Investigate import requirements

Often country specific import regulation requires OrganicCrops to supply specific information. Without that information customs might reject your product order upon entry. So it is crucial to thoroughly
research the import (document) requirements for importing the product(s) into your country. For instance:

1. Certificate of Origin (COO). Is it required? In Peru, in most cases, the COO is issued by the chamber of commerce upon request from OrganicCrops. In some case OrganicCrops issues the COO directly. For the EU, a EUR.1 certificate is required is most cases.
2. Phytosanitary certificate. Is it required? For most unprocessed (without heat treatment) products (e.g. cacao beans, Andean grains) and sometimes for certain root products (e.g. maca), a phytosanitary certificate is required to import the product into your country. It is YOUR responsibility to check if OrganicCrops needs to apply for a phytosanitary inspection with SENASA (National Agricultural Health Service of Peru, Ministry of Agriculture). The phytosanitary inspection can only be done prior to loading the products into the shipping container. It is usually carried out at the ocean port terminal or airport. After the inspection SENASA will issue the phytosanitary certificate. Normally a digital (scanned) copy is sufficient but some countries require a original/hard copy. You need to inform OrganicCrops if a hard copy is required to be send to the destination country. Courier charges apply.
3. Common export documents you will receive from OrganicCrops with each order:
   1. Commercial Invoice,
   2. A (copy of) Proforma Invoice,
   3. A (copy of) your signed Purchase Order,
   4. Digital copy of the box labels,
   5. Packing List,
   6. Administration Invoice,
   7. Airway Bill/Bill of Lading.
4. Optional export documents that OrganicCrops can issue without charges:
   • Allergen Statement
   • Certificate of Analysis (internal)
   • Composition Statement
   • Continuing Guarantee  Statement
   • FCL Packing Declaration
   • Food Safety Quality Policy
   • Gluten Free Statement
   • GMP Statement
   • LCL Packing Declaration
   • Manufacturers Declaration
   • Material Safety Data Sheet
   • Non-Animal Testing Statement
   • Non-Fumigation Statement
   • Non-GMO Statement
   • Organic Statement
   • Vegan Statement

Step 3 – Get product quotes

Visit organiccrops.net, go the product page of the product you are looking to procure.

1. Read the product information, download the product specification document which contains detailed product information such as physical and chemical characteristics, microbiological parameters, nutritional information, storage and shelf-life information and a production process  flow-chart.
2. Fill out the "Quote Request" form. You’ll find a specific quote request form on each product page. Information you’ll need:
   1. Cultivation: conventional or organic
   2. Quantity of product needed: 100, 500, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000+ kg. Orders of 10 metric tons (mt) and more are shipped in a dedicated 20 foot or 40 foot shipping container. Orders less than 6mt are shipped in a consolidated container (LCL).
   3. Presentation (e.g. bulk 2 x PE bag of 10kg in 20kg boxes, retail bars presentation, etc.)
   4. Incoterms (e.g. FOB, CFR, CIF. Other incoterms on request). For information about Incoterms 2020: Wikipedia, VeloTrade, Trade.gov, and ShippingSolutions.com.
3. It usually takes less than a day to receive a reply from OrganicCrops. Most of the time you’ll receive a detailed quotation within 48 hours of your quote request. Once you have received the quotation, review all the required information carefully. You can contact our sales department for further inquiries, photo’s, samples, etc.
4. In case you require OrganicCrops to include shipping to your ocean terminal/airport of choice, OrganicCrops will request a quote from its shipping/logistics partner. It can take up to 72 hours for our logistics partner to get back to us with information and a shipping price.
5. Payment terms and sales conditions can be found on the quotation.

Step 4 – Placing the order

By now you have a detailed quotation and you have gathered all the information needed to import the product. The next step is to email OrganicCrops with your intend to place an order:

1. You can either send OrganicCrops your own signed purchase order, detailing the specifics of the product order and matching the OrganicCrops proforma, or OrganicCrops can send you a purchase order template which you can fill-out, sign, scan and return to OrganicCrops.
2. OrganicCrops will email you a Proforma invoice.
3. OrganicCrops will pre-plan the order. This is a heads-up for the involved OrganicCrops departments that an order is about to materialize.
4. Once payment has cleared into the OrganicCrops bank account, OrganicCrops will secure the order with the involved departments, plan logistics, start the export documentation process and the shipping process if you want OrganicCrops carry out the shipping. The customer is informed of every step along the way.
5. Once the plant/warehouse has issued a product-ready-date, logistics is planned in. This is local logistics such as road transport to the port of Callao or the International airport of Lima and sea or air transport to the destination country. By that time we communicate the approx. date the order arrives in your country so that you can start-up the import process with your customs/logistics partners.
6. Some of our customers require a pre-shipment inspection to be carried out by a quality control organization such as SGS, Bureau Veritas, ISO, etc. OrganicCrops needs to be informed at the time of placing the order so that the inspection can be plan in accordingly.
7. Once the order is ready, it is transported to the port of Callao or to Lima International Airport in case of air freight. If a phytosanitary inspection is needed than that is usually done on the day the order arrives in the port. Once in the port it will clear customs, (sometimes) undergo inspection(s), and finally the order is stored in a warehouse inside the port terminal. The order is now ready for shipping.
   Usually we deliver the cargo at least 1 day before the shipping cut-off date of 4-6 days, which means that the cargo arrives in the port 1 week before the ship sails.

Step 5 – Receiving the order

1. Once the order is on its way to the destination country, OrganicCrops will send you a digital copy of all shipping/export documents. If the order is the equivalent of a full container load then OrganicCrops will also send you the hard-copies of the shipping/export documents via courier.
2. Depending on its destination and the number of transfers (usually no more than 1), ocean freight shipping can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 65 days. Air freight takes 2-5 days. Please note that perishable food products (fruits, flowers, vegetables) always get priority on air freight over dried food products.
3. By now you should have informed your customs agent and logistics partner that your order is on its way. They will file the required documents and start the import process.
4. Do not forget to inform your warehouse so that they can allocate the order according to the storage recommendations found in the product specification document.
5. Once the order arrives in the port make sure that a physical inspection is carried out to ensure that the product has arrived in good condition.

 

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