Paperwork and customs
Licences and registrations.
Several markets require the importer to hold a licence, a registration or a listed status before a shipment can enter. None of these can be arranged while a container is at sea, which is why this belongs at the start rather than at the end.
The kinds you will meet.
Different names in different markets and broadly four shapes.
- A general import licence
- A permission to import at all, or to import a category. Some markets have one and many do not.
- A product registration
- The product itself is registered or notified before it may be sold. Common for food, cosmetics and supplements.
- A facility or importer registration
- You register as a business handling the category, which several food regimes require.
- A consignment permit
- Per shipment rather than standing, common in biosecurity regimes for plant and animal products.
How to find out what applies.
Ask a customs broker in the destination before you ask the exporter. The exporter knows their side and the requirement is on yours.
Identify the product precisely, because requirements attach to specific goods rather than to categories.
Check both the customs side and the regulatory side. A product can be freely importable and unsellable without a registration.
Confirm the timeline. Registrations that take months change the whole plan for a first order.
Getting the sequence right.
Establish the requirement before you order samples, so you do not develop a product you cannot sell.
Start any registration before you place the first order, because they run in parallel and the registration is usually the longer one.
Confirm the supplier can provide what the registration needs. Technical files, formulations and test data all come from them, and some are reluctant until they understand why.
Only then commit to volume.
The Indonesian side.
Indonesia has its own export licensing, which is the exporter's obligation rather than yours. A legitimate exporter holds it and you can ask to see it.
Some goods are restricted or prohibited for export from Indonesia, which is a question to establish before designing a product around them.
Neither of those substitutes for your own market's requirements, and the two sets are unrelated.
Questions buyers ask.
Who tells me what I need?
A customs broker or a regulatory consultant in your own market. An Indonesian exporter knows Indonesian requirements, and what you need on your side is not their obligation or their expertise.
Can I import first and register later?
For a consignment permit or an importer registration, no, the shipment will not enter. For a product registration you may be able to import and not sell, which is an expensive place to be.
Does my supplier need a licence?
Indonesian exporters have their own licensing obligations, which you can ask to see as part of verification. It says nothing about what you need at your end.
Read next.
Export documents, by category
Four categories, four different sets of paperwork and almost no overlap. Built from the reference pages, so it cannot fall behind what is published.
How to import from Indonesia
Six steps, and the order of them matters more than the detail. What goes wrong at each, and where to read the detail on products, documents and destinations.
How to verify an Indonesian supplier
Two public government registries, the cross-check between them that catches most problems before a deposit moves, and the part only a visit can answer.
Labelling for your market
Printed in Indonesia and judged in your country. What has to appear, and who carries the obligation.
ETPIK registration
Only a registered forest products exporter can ship timber out of Indonesia and obtain a V-Legal document. What that means for choosing a supplier.
LARTAS restrictions
Indonesia restricts what may leave as well as what may enter. What LARTAS covers, where to check it, and why it belongs early in a sourcing talk.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.