A mid-size buyer approaching Egypt for the first time has three ways in. Deal directly with an exporter who packs and ships. Work through a buying agent who represents you in the market for a commission. Or buy from a trading house that takes title, marks the goods up and sells them on. Each model can work. Each one costs something, and the cost is not always where a new buyer expects it.
The direct exporter
Buying direct means one counterparty who owns the packing, the documents and the loading. Pricing is a single quoted figure with no layer above it, and when something goes wrong there is no question about who is responsible. The trade-off is coverage. One exporter packs what it packs. If your order spans citrus, IQF vegetables and dried goods, a single direct supplier will either subcontract part of it, in which case you have an intermediary you did not choose, or tell you it cannot do the whole load.
For part-load buyers this matters less than it used to, because an exporter that consolidates several producers into one reefer is already solving the coverage problem in a transparent way. How that is built is set out in our note on consolidating several Egyptian suppliers into one reefer.
The buying agent
An agent works on your side of the table for a commission, typically in the range of two to five percent of invoice value depending on the crop and the volume. You still contract with the exporter, so the goods, the documents and the risk sit in the same place as a direct purchase. What you buy is local presence: someone who can walk into a packhouse during your loading, check the fruit before the doors close, and tell you when a season is turning.
The model is only worth its cost if the agent is genuinely independent. The question to ask, plainly, is whether the agent also takes any payment from the supplier side. An agent paid by both parties is not representing you, whatever the arrangement is called. Ask, and get the answer in writing before the first order.
The trading house
A trader buys from the packer and sells to you at its own price. The margin is inside the number rather than shown as a line, and on fresh produce it commonly sits somewhere between five and fifteen percent. In exchange you get one contact for a wide product range, a single invoice, and often more flexible payment than a packhouse would offer a new account.
The weakness shows up at claim time. A trader who has already been paid by you and has already paid the packer has limited appetite to reopen the file, and you have no direct relationship with whoever actually packed the fruit. If you go this route, insist on knowing the packhouse behind the goods and its certification numbers, which our note on GLOBALG.A.P and BRC on small Egyptian orders explains how to verify.
Working out which one you are dealing with
Company names do not tell you. A few questions do. Ask whether the company owns or operates the packhouse the goods come from. Ask whose name goes on the phytosanitary certificate and the bill of lading as shipper. Ask to see the GLOBALG.A.P number for the producing farm. Ask who attends the loading. A supplier that answers all four without hesitation is packing your goods. A supplier that answers vaguely is reselling them, which is not wrong in itself, but you should price it as such.
Peivana packs and ships in its own name, quotes a single figure with no commission layer, and will name the producing farm and certification behind any lot on request. For a same-day quotation on a mixed container or a part-load, message us on WhatsApp at +20 10 9911 1918.