Shipping Organic Tea: Incoterms, Documents and Transit Times

We quote FOB as standard because it keeps the freight decision in your hands — you use your forwarder, your insurance, your consolidation. CIF and DDP are available for repeat buyers who would rather have one invoice per container.

Organic tea is audited at the border on paperwork, not on taste. These travel with every shipment, and the organic certificate is issued for the destination market named on your order:

• Commercial invoice and packing list
• Bill of lading (original or telex release, your choice)
• Certificate of analysis — moisture, total ash, tea polyphenols, pesticide screen
• Organic transaction certificate: China Organic GB/T 19630, EU 2018/848, or USDA NOP
• Phytosanitary certificate from China Customs
• Certificate of origin (Form A, or the FTA form your country accepts)
• ISPM 15 heat-treatment mark on wooden pallets, or plastic pallets instead

If your customs broker needs a document we have not listed, tell us before booking — most can be issued with the shipment rather than after it.

Indicative times from Shenzhen or Hong Kong, excluding customs clearance at destination and inland trucking:

Bulk tea is light, so most shipments cube out before they weigh out. Practical figures for floor-loaded bulk:

• 20-foot FCL — roughly 11–13 tonnes of bulk tea in 20–25 kg bags
• 40-foot FCL — roughly 22–25 tonnes, or up to twelve SKUs mixed in one container
• Palletised cargo — expect 8–12% less payload, in exchange for faster handling at destination
• LCL — available from one pallet upward, with a consolidation forwarder; slower but workable for samples and first trials

Minimum order is 1,000 kg per SKU. If your volumes sit below that, ask about our mixed-pallet programme for first orders.

Send these five items and we can hold space on the next available sailing:

1. Consignee name, address and tax or EORI number
2. Destination port and preferred Incoterm
3. Which organic certificate your market requires
4. Label artwork, or a note that you will use our neutral bulk packing
5. Target ship date, and whether partial shipments are acceptable

Who books the vessel? On FOB, your forwarder books and we deliver to the port before cut-off. On CIF and DDP, we book and send you the booking confirmation within two working days.

Can you ship LCL? Yes, from one pallet. LCL adds one to three weeks because of consolidation, so we usually recommend it only for samples and first trials.

How do samples ship? Up to 2 kg travels by courier at our cost for qualified buyers; larger samples go by air freight at cost. Sample dispatch is two to three working days after your address and courier account are confirmed.