Two suppliers quote the same product at the same unit price and the landed cost differs by 30%. The gap is almost never the product — it is the Incoterm, and what each side assumed it included. This is a working explanation of the four terms you will actually see when buying supplements from China.

Why the term matters more than the unit price

An Incoterm fixes three things at once: where the seller's cost stops, where the risk of loss transfers, and who is named as shipper on the documents. A quote without a term is not a price, it is a starting point for a dispute. When you compare offers, convert every one of them to the same term before you compare numbers.

EXW — ex works

The buyer collects at the factory gate. The seller's obligation ends when the goods are made available, and the buyer arranges export clearance, inland haulage, freight and import. It looks cheapest on paper and is rarely the cheapest in practice: a buyer without a Chinese entity often cannot complete export clearance, and the factory's forwarder will not do it for free. Use EXW only if you already have a freight agent handling China-side export.

FOB — free on board

The default for supplement manufacturing in China, and for good reason. The seller delivers to the named port, clears export, and the risk transfers when the goods are on board. The buyer controls the main freight, which means you know what you are paying for ocean or air, and you own the relationship with the carrier. If a quote says only "FOB" without a port, ask which port — Shenzhen, Shanghai and Qingdao produce very different inland costs.

CIF — cost, insurance and freight

The seller pays freight and insurance to the destination port, but risk still transfers at the port of loading. That combination surprises first-time buyers: the seller arranges insurance, yet a loss in transit is the buyer's problem to claim. CIF is convenient when you want one number and do not want to book freight, but check the insured value and the claim procedure before the container sails, not after.

DDP — delivered duty paid

The seller handles everything to your door, including import duty. It is the easiest term to buy and the hardest to price honestly, because the seller is estimating duties and taxes they do not control. Two questions decide whether a DDP quote is real: who is the importer of record on the entry, and what happens if customs reclassifies the goods. If the answer is vague, the risk is being priced into your next order, or into a surprise invoice after arrival.

What the term does not cover

No Incoterm includes product compliance. Registration of the facility, label compliance in the destination market, and the certificate of analysis are contractual obligations that sit outside the shipping term. A DDP quote does not make a non-compliant label legal, and FOB does not shift the responsibility for what is inside the bottle.

The document set that should travel with every shipment

Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill, certificate of analysis for the batch, and — where the destination requires it — a certificate of origin and a safety data sheet for the material. Ask for draft copies before the goods leave, because correcting a certificate of origin after arrival is far slower than correcting it at the port.

Six mistakes worth avoiding

  • Comparing an EXW quote with an FOB quote and concluding one factory is cheaper.
  • Accepting "FOB China" without a named port.
  • Assuming CIF means the seller carries the risk to destination.
  • Buying DDP without confirming who clears customs and who is the importer of record.
  • Forgetting that the destination market's labeling rules apply regardless of the shipping term.
  • Letting the batch COA travel separately from the goods.

How we quote

We quote FOB by default and name the port, because it keeps the freight decision in your hands and makes offers comparable. If you need CIF or DDP, tell us the destination port or postcode and we will price it with the forwarder rather than estimate it. Samples ship in 3-5 days, production in 7 days, MOQ 500 units, with a COA for every batch.