How to import sugar from Brazil, step by step.

Step 1. Check your own side first

Before you ask anyone for an offer, find out what your country needs from you: an import licence or authorisation, food-safety registration, the customs duty and taxes on white sugar, and any labelling rule. Some markets open and close sugar imports by decree. The import rules by country cover the main West African and Gulf markets, with sources.

Step 2. Send a requirement a supplier can answer

A supplier can’t quote “sugar”. It can quote six facts:

• the grade (ICUMSA 45, ICUMSA 150 or VHP);
• quantity per shipment, and how many shipments;
• your discharge port;
• when you need it shipped;
• packaging, for example 50 kg bags;
• how your bank will pay.

Without them, no supplier can quote.

Step 3. A first call, and a written request

The first video call is with me, the supplier’s representative. I explain how the supplier works, and I ask about your business, your market and your bank. If it fits, you put the request in writing on your company letterhead. The supplier reviews it, and qualified buyers are introduced to the named supplier before any contract.

Step 4. The contract

The contract is between you and the supplier. It should name:

• the specification: colour in ICUMSA units, polarisation and moisture, with the test method;
• quantity, packaging and the shipment period;
• the Incoterm with a named port. Under Incoterms 2020, a CIF term without a named destination port is incomplete;
• the independent inspection company;
• the documents the bank will pay against;
• the rules and arbitration, for example the Refined Sugar Association’s.

Step 5. Let the banks do the talking

Once the contract is signed, your bank issues a letter of credit in the supplier’s favour. The supplier’s standard is non-transferable, at sight. From then on, the banks carry the deal:

• Your bank commits to pay as soon as it issues the credit, provided the documents comply (UCP 600, Article 7). That is what the supplier needs before it loads.
• The supplier’s bank checks the credit’s apparent authenticity before passing it on (Article 9). If your bank isn’t one the supplier accepts, a first-class bank can confirm the credit and add its own promise to pay (Article 8).
• What the banks don’t check is the sugar itself. Banks deal in documents, not goods (Article 5). Your protection on the sugar comes from the inspection certificate the credit requires, which is why Step 4 names the inspector.

After loading, the shipping documents go from the supplier’s bank to yours. The supplier is paid only if they match the credit; your bank then releases the documents to you, and you collect the cargo. You pay against the documents the credit names, inspection certificate included, not against a promise, and the supplier ships only once a bank is committed to pay. More on the instrument in transferable vs non-transferable letters of credit.

Step 6. Inspection at the loading port

When the sugar reaches the port, an independent superintendence company such as SGS or Bureau Veritas samples it, weighs it and checks the packing and the holds or containers. Under Refined Sugar Association rules, buyer and seller can each appoint one, at their own cost. The inspector issues a certificate of weight, quality and packing, and that certificate is one of the documents the bank checks before it pays. Details in what protects you if sugar arrives off-spec.

Step 7. Payment against documents

After loading, the supplier presents the documents: on a CIF sale, a clean on-board bill of lading, a certificate of origin, the inspection certificate, a signed invoice and an insurance document. Each bank that examines them has up to five banking days to do it (Article 14). If they comply, the supplier is paid. You pay the supplier directly, bank to bank, and never through me.

Step 8. Arrival and clearance

At your port you clear customs with the original documents and the permits from Step 1. If the sugar arrives off-spec, Refined Sugar Association rules give you 7 days after completion of discharge to give notice of a claim (for containers, counted from when the seal is broken, delivery to you, or 40 days on the quay, whichever comes first).

What never happens in this process

• You never send a deposit or any upfront payment to an intermediary.
• Nobody asks you to lodge a bank instrument before the company, the cargo and the banks are verified.
• The supplier doesn’t ship first and wait to be paid on arrival.

If any of these come up, see how sugar fraud actually works, and verify the supplier before money moves.