Buyer's guide
A practical guide for buyers abroad: what Indonesia supplies, the steps before a first container, the documents that travel with the cargo, and how long it takes.
What Indonesia supplies
Spices, coconut products, natural fibres, seaweed and essential oils. These are the commodities we supply, each with grade, packing and container load on its own page.
White Pepper, Black Pepper, Clove, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Ginger, Turmeric, Coffee Beans, Cocoa Beans, Wet Vanilla, Candlenut, Cardamom
Before the first container
Most problems with a first shipment start before anything is loaded. This is the order that keeps them away.
Grade, moisture, impurity limits and packing decide both the price and whether the cargo is accepted on arrival. Agree them in writing before you compare offers.
Your country sets the import permit, the duty and any food or plant health rules. Ask your customs broker, using the HS code listed on each commodity page, before you sign.
FOB, CFR or CIF decides who pays freight and insurance, and where the risk passes to you. Read FOB vs CIF first.
Evaluate a sample against your specification. The sales contract then records grade, quantity, schedule, payment terms and the remedy if the cargo misses specification.
Payment is an advance or a letter of credit, agreed in the contract. After loading you receive loading photographs, container and seal numbers, and the bill of lading.
Paperwork
The export declaration and export permits are cleared by us under IDB's name. These are the documents you receive for your own customs entry, depending on the goods and your destination.
Value, quantity, and net and gross weight per package. Your customs entry starts from these two.
Issued by the carrier once the goods are on board. It is the document you need to collect the cargo at your port.
Issued in Indonesia. Where your country has a trade agreement with Indonesia, the right form can lower the duty you pay.
For plant products such as spices, fibres and seeds, issued by the Indonesian quarantine agency before loading.
Where the destination requires it, for certain plant products or for goods shipped with wooden packing.
Pre-shipment inspection or laboratory analysis, whenever it is written into the contract.
Timeline
Around 40 working days from first message to sailing for goods in stock with no special permit. Stage 05, documents and inspection, decides the schedule more than the voyage does.
Name the goods, a rough volume, and the destination country.
Detail follows: specification, company papers, target dates.
One price to the delivery point, then negotiated.
The agreement goes on paper and the first payment lands.
PEB, certificate of origin, and quarantine issue first, then the goods move.
Quality checked, container sealed, position reported until arrival.
Common questions
Our catalogue covers white pepper, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, coffee beans, cocoa beans, wet vanilla, coconut briquette, coconut oil, coconut fruit, fish crackers, kapok fiber, coco fiber, cocopeat, seaweed, patchouli oil, candlenut, cardamom. Each commodity has its own page with grade, packing, HS code and container load.
That depends on your country and the goods. On the Indonesian side, the export permits and the export declaration run under IDB's name, so you need no Indonesian licence. Check the import side with your customs broker before you contract.
Duty is set by your country's tariff for the HS code of the goods. It can be lower under a trade agreement with Indonesia when a valid certificate of origin is presented. We list the HS code on each commodity page so your broker can check the rate.
Around six weeks from first contact until the goods depart, for goods in stock that need no special permit. The voyage comes on top of that. What usually decides the schedule is how quickly the specification is complete.
It depends on the goods. For spices it usually starts at one 20ft container, though some buyers accept consolidated loads. For light goods like kapok the limit is space, not weight, so the arithmetic is different.
Yes. We confirm sample availability, preparation time and courier cost before you commit to a bulk order.
Start here
Three lines are enough on a first message: the commodity, roughly how much, and your destination port. We reply the same working day.
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