Export Guides

A produce sales contract is the document that decides every future argument before it happens — and most first-time import deals run on a proforma invoice and optimism instead. Produce contracts differ from general goods contracts in exactly the ways fruit differs from machinery: quality is biological, tolerances are inevitable, time is destructive, and the […]

Samples and trial orders in fresh produce work nothing like the sample economy of dry goods — a courier box of oranges proves what one tree did one week, not what twenty containers will do across a season. The industry’s real sampling unit is the trial container, structured to teach the maximum while risking the

Sourcing agent versus buying direct from the exporter is the fork every new produce importer reaches before the first container: pay a local professional to navigate Egypt for you, or build the supplier relationship yourself and keep the margin. Both answers are right for different buyers at different stages — and both are wrong when

Produce trade shows — Fruit Logistica, Gulfood, and the regional circuit — remain the highest-bandwidth sourcing channel in the business: three days on a show floor compresses a year of emails into face-to-face qualification, taste tests, and handshakes with the actual decision-makers of a hundred exporters. This guide maps the shows that matter for Egyptian

Customs clearance at the destination is the last mile where good shipments go to wait: the fruit crossed the sea perfectly, and now a document query, a quarantine sample, or a broker’s slow Tuesday decides whether it clears in hours or ages in the terminal. This guide walks the clearance sequence step by step —

Pallets, ISPM-15, and packaging materials are the least glamorous line in a produce shipment and one of the few that can stop a container at any border on earth: an unstamped pallet triggers fumigation, re-palletizing, or outright refusal in dozens of countries, and a wrong pallet footprint quietly wastes 8% of every container you book.

Landed cost calculation is the arithmetic that separates professional importers from hopeful ones: the journey from an Egyptian FOB quote to the true cost of one carton in your warehouse crosses freight, insurance, duty, port fees, clearance, trucking, and losses — and every line skipped is margin imagined. This guide builds the complete calculation with

Container types for produce decide outcomes before any vessel sails: the same onions thrive in a ventilated box in January and cook in it in July; frozen strawberries have exactly one container type on earth; and paying reefer rates for cargo that wanted a $800-cheaper dry box is the quietest margin leak in the import

Egyptian ports for produce export are a strategic choice disguised as a logistics detail: Alexandria, Damietta, and Sokhna serve different geographies, carriers, and transit times, and the port on your bill of lading can add or subtract a week of shelf life at destination. This guide maps Egypt’s three produce gateways — plus the specialized

Air freight from Egypt for perishables is the premium lane: strawberries picked Tuesday selling in Gulf supermarkets Thursday, figs and premium mangoes reaching London while their sea-freight cousins are still being booked. It costs multiples of ocean freight and earns those multiples only on the right products. This guide covers Cairo Airport’s perishables operation, which