The government recently highlighted a huge gap in the UK’s potential exports.  The UK’s largest manufacturing sector is food and drink, with a turnover of in excess of £90bn.  Despite this impressive statistic only 10% of UK food and drink manufacturers currently export their goods.

If you’re a UK food or drink manufacturer and have not been involved in shipping before you may be asking ‘how do I export my goods?’

Obviously the first step is to find a buyer for your goods abroad.  Once you have achieved this, the next step is to arrange the shipping of your food or drink.

In order to do this, the best route is to appoint a freight forwarder to handle this for you.  Finding a reliable and reputable freight forwarder can be a bit of a task.  Your freight forwarder will need to have knowledge of required documents for exporting food and drink, and also understand port health restrictions, which differ from country to country.

For this reason, it is important to choose a freight forwarder who has contacts globally.  Mercator Cargo has these relevant contacts as we are a founding member of the global freight forwarding network Marco Polo Line (MPL).  Using our contacts from MPL, we can draw on local knowledge at your cargo’s destination.

In the sector of international trade and shipping, knowledge is extremely powerful; it can avoid great mistakes and achieve great advantages.  Mercator has a core team of experienced freight forwarders who have been working in the industry for the entirety of their careers; freight forwarding is their bread and butter.

When in discussion with your buyer, you will need to agree on what “INCO terms” you are selling your food or drink.  “INCO terms” are an internationally understood terms of buying and selling, the terms outline what you as a seller are liable to pay for and what the buyer will need to pay.  Discuss this in further detail with our export team if you are unsure, we will do our best to make this clear for you.

Give Mercator Cargo a call today and ask for the export team to discuss exporting your UK manufactured food and drink – Tel. 02392 756 575. Email: sales@mercatorcargo.co.uk.

 

Request a Quote for Exporting Food from the UK

Are you exhibiting at the International Food and Drink Exhibition (IFE) this year?

Are you hoping to meet some new suppliers/buyers?

How would you feel if they were based outside the UK? Perhaps you have never dealt with imports or exports, you might feel this situation would be daunting, or you may have had difficulties in this area in the past.

Mercator Cargo is visiting IFE, represented by Paul (our MD) and (hopefully*) James (*his wife is expecting their first a few weeks following the exhibition – if their baby arrives early you may spot him as the man with the biggest grin on his face!).

Paul has been running Mercator Cargo for over twenty years and been in the freight forwarding industry for almost 40. The firm’s experiences in shipping food stuffs include coffee, noodles, sauces, jarred and canned goods, seeds, pastes, rice, oils, juices, flours, and food grains.

Paul’s son, James, joined the exports team in 2009, and has grown into his role, overseeing the majority of our complex food logistics (including peanuts, curry pastes, and rice).

Not only do the team at Mercator have the necessary experience to handle your food shipments, Paul and James have a genuine interest in food, especially world foods.

With personal contacts in almost every country in the world we are able to draw on local knowledge at your goods destination or origin.

If you would like James or Paul to darken your stand for 15 minutes during the exhibition, then please feel free to email us on sales@mercatorcargo.co.uk (this will arrive at both James and Paul’s inboxes).

James and Paul will be happy to answer any questions you might have about shipments.  If we don’t know the answer to your question, James or Paul will endeavour to find you the correct answer. Paul’s motto is “there’s no such phrase as ‘it can’t be done'”.

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Request a Quote for Shipping Food and Drink