Export document
Certificate of analysis
A certificate of analysis is a laboratory report on a specific lot. It records the measured values for whatever the contract names: moisture, defect count, active content, microbiology. Its usefulness depends entirely on whether the sample it describes came from the goods that shipped.
The essentials.
- Who issues it
- The producer's own laboratory, or an independent one where the contract calls for it. The two carry different weight in a dispute.
- What belongs on it
- The lot identification, the parameters named in the contract, the method used for each, and the date of analysis.
- What makes it worth having
- Sampling. A certificate describing a sample drawn somewhere other than the shipped lot describes something you are not buying.
Who asks for it.
This travels with the goods wherever they go. Either Indonesia requires it on the way out, or it is an ordinary trade document that any buyer, bank and carrier expects to see.
What it does not cover.
It describes a sample, not a container
Even honest sampling captures a fraction of a lot. For anything priced on an analytical figure, agree the sampling method in the contract and keep a retained sample on both sides.
It is not third-party inspection
A producer's own certificate is a statement by the seller. Where the number decides the price, an independent pre-shipment analysis is a different instrument and is worth what it costs.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I insist on an independent laboratory?
Where the price turns on a measured figure, yes. For patchouli quoted on a PA number or coffee contracted on moisture and defects, the cost of an independent analysis is small next to the value of the lot it settles.
What if the arrival analysis disagrees with the certificate?
That is what retained samples are for. Without one, the argument comes down to two reports on two different samples and neither side can prove anything.
Where this comes up.
Indonesian coffee
Arabica and robusta origins, wet-hulling, how the national standard grades a lot, packing, and the documents a buyer needs including EUDR.
Indonesian patchouli oil
Patchouli alcohol content, crude against redistilled, how Aceh, Sumatran and Sulawesi oils differ, and the documents a buyer needs.
Inspecting before it sails
The five moments worth inspecting, what a report has to contain, and the mistake that makes an inspection worthless.
What a sample actually proves
The narrow question a sample answers, and why the sealed duplicate you never open is worth more than the one you evaluate.
Need this document for a real shipment?
Tell us the product and the destination port. We come back with the full document set for that route, who issues each one, and how long it takes.