From market research to a qualified trade deal: a market-entry checklist for produce, seafood and egg importers

Export and trade-promotion agencies typically help businesses with four things: choosing a market, understanding its requirements, reducing the risk of entering it, and meeting suitable partners. Importers of fresh produce, seafood and eggs face the same four problems from the other side of the deal.

Global B2B Group applies that discipline commercially. We are a commercial sourcing coordinator — not a government body, trade agency, regulator, producer, exporter or certifier. Buyers describe what they need in one structured request; our team contacts suppliers on the buyer's behalf and returns comparable offers. Buyers and suppliers are not put in direct contact.

Responsibility stays where the law puts it. Exporters remain responsible for meeting the destination's phytosanitary, food-safety and registration rules; importers remain responsible for import licences, permits and customs entry. We help both sides see which checks are still open before anyone signs.

Start from recorded trade, not assumptions. Customs statistics in the UN Comtrade database (opens in a new tab) show which countries already import a product and from where; the ITC Market Access Map (opens in a new tab) adds tariffs and many non-tariff measures for a given product and route.

Trade statistics describe what has moved in the past. They do not prove that a particular origin is admitted today, that a particular supplier is eligible, or that buyers will pay a given price. Use them to shortlist markets, then verify access separately in Step 2.

Under the WTO SPS Agreement (opens in a new tab), each importing country may apply science-based measures to protect human, animal and plant health. In practice, access is granted product by product and origin by origin, and the conditions sit in the destination authority's own notices. A published protocol for one fruit from one country says nothing about another fruit or another country.

Starting points such as the ITC Market Access Map or the European Commission's Access2Markets (opens in a new tab) help you find the relevant rules. The legal text that applies is always the destination authority's own document — read it, date it and keep a copy with the deal file.

A market can be open while a particular supplier is not ready. Readiness means the supplier can meet the route's conditions now: its farms or plants are registered where registration is required, its certificates are valid for the product being offered, and it can show records of comparable shipments.

We check what can be checked against public records and say clearly what could not be verified. Certificates are specific to a product, site and date, so we ask for the certificate itself and its validity, not a logo. The supplier remains responsible for its own compliance.

Comparable offers need one written specification. Where an international standard exists — such as the UNECE standards for fresh fruit and vegetables (opens in a new tab) — use its classes and size codes as the shared language, then add your own customer requirements.

Fix the delivery terms with an Incoterms® 2020 (opens in a new tab) rule and a named place, so every supplier prices the same scope. Temperature, atmosphere and transit plans must come from the supplier and the carrier for the specific product and route; do not copy figures from another product.

A qualified request for quotation is complete enough for several suppliers to price the same thing. It turns Steps 1–4 into one document: product and specification, volume and window, destination and delivery terms, required documents, and the access checks still open.

The service is free for buyers. Managed sourcing is offered for programmes from USD 250,000 per year or season; below that we explain what the team can and cannot do. Your identity stays confidential: our team contacts suppliers for you, and there is no direct buyer–supplier contact.

After review, our team approaches suitable suppliers, asks each one for the same evidence and returns offers side by side. Matching means introducing your request to suppliers through us; it does not mean a supplier has been approved by any authority or that a deal will close.

Inspection and logistics are arranged with providers that the buyer or supplier chooses — for example an independent inspection company before loading and on arrival, a freight forwarder and a customs broker. Where finance or cargo insurance is relevant, we can point to options; we are not a lender, insurer or guarantor, and no approval is implied.

Kenyan Hass avocados to China: rules have applied since 1 June 2022 under China's customs Notice 2022 No. 47. Only orchards, packhouses and fumigation sites registered with China's customs may ship, and each lot needs methyl-bromide fumigation and a phytosanitary certificate with a set declaration. Whether a given site is on the current list is an open check each season.

South African table grapes to the Philippines: the Philippine Department of Agriculture issued import rules on 19 November 2024; South Africa reported the market open from 26 February 2025 and the arrival of the first official shipment on 25 March 2026. Importers need a licence and an import clearance before shipment; grapes need registered production units and in-transit cold treatment.

These are the gaps that most often stop a first shipment or turn it into a claim.