Labelling for your market.

The categories of requirement.

Every market arranges these differently, and almost every market has all of them in some form.

Identity and quantity

What the product is and how much is in the pack, in the units the market uses.

Ingredients and allergens

For food and cosmetics, in a prescribed order and often with allergens emphasised.

Origin marking

Where the product was made. Rules differ on when it is required and how it must be worded.

Responsible party

A name and address in the destination market or region. This is the party a regulator contacts.

Language

Set by the market rather than by convenience. Some accept English, many do not, and multilingual packs are the usual answer in Europe.

Dates and batch

Durability dates in the local format and a batch code that ties back to production records.

Warnings and symbols

Product specific. Candles, cosmetics, electricals and toys each carry their own set.

When to settle it.

Before production, always. Artwork approval belongs in the same conversation as the first article, and a printed pack that is wrong is either relabelled by hand in a European warehouse or scrapped.

Get the proof as a physical printed sample rather than as a file. Colour, legibility and the position of the mandatory particulars all look different on the actual substrate.

Keep the artwork under your control. If the factory holds the files, moving supplier means recreating them and re-approving everything.

Who carries the obligation.

The party placing the product on the market, which for an import is the importer or the brand owner. The Indonesian factory has no obligations under your market's labelling law and generally no way of knowing them.

This is why sending a specimen label to the factory is more effective than asking them to comply. Give them exact artwork and an approval process rather than a requirement.

It is also why the country of origin statement matters commercially as well as legally. Made in Indonesia is an asset in several categories, and it has to be worded to match the actual origin rules rather than to sound good.

Questions buyers ask.

Read next.

• Private label and OEM

  Your brand on their product, or a product developed for you. Two different deals with two different risks.

• Rules of origin, explained

  A preference is worth nothing unless the goods qualify and you can prove it. What the rules ask and where goods fail.

• What a European buyer has to build first

  Six obligations that sit on the EU importer, and two dates inside the next eighteen months that change the tariff and the paperwork.

• What an American buyer has to build first

  FSVP, the Lacey declaration and formaldehyde all sit on the importer rather than the producer. Six things, in order, before a first container.

• Writing a specification suppliers can price

  The document that decides what arrives. What belongs in it, what has to be measurable, and the words that cause disputes.

• Buying certified organic

  An organic certificate only helps if your market recognises the certifier. Who needs to hold what.

• Halal: whose certificate counts

  Indonesia certifies for its own market. Your market may recognise a different body entirely.

• Traceability and recalls

  If you had to withdraw a batch tomorrow, could you say which one. What to hold before you need it.

• Specifying the packaging

  Left to the factory, packaging is chosen on cost. What to specify instead, and why.

• Shelf life

  A date on a pack is a claim somebody has to support. How it is set and when it does not apply.

• Allergens in a shared factory

  Most Indonesian plants run several products on one line. What that means for your label.

• Product liability

  Importing makes you the producer in most legal systems. What that means for your exposure.

• Packaging waste obligations

  Bringing packaged goods into a market makes you responsible for the packaging. What that involves.

• Licences and registrations

  Some markets require you registered before goods arrive. Which ones and how to find out.

• Choosing what to import first

  Some products are far harder to start with. Which forgive a beginner and which do not.

• Retail or food service

  Two channels with different packaging, margins and demands on your supplier.

• Telling an origin story

  Provenance sells and an unsupported claim is a liability. What you can say and what it needs.