Pricing
5 per cent, paid by you.
We charge 5 per cent of the order value and we take nothing from the producer. Every supplier invoice is passed to you as we received it. Terms last confirmed 2026-07-29.
The three numbers.
- Service fee5% of order value
- Finding and vetting the producer, getting the quotation, running the order, and putting the documents and the freight together to your port. One fee, and it is the only money we make on your order.
- Factory auditfrom $250 per factory
- Somebody goes to the address, walks the floor and writes it up. Priced by location because Java is a day and eastern Indonesia is not. Optional, and worth it before a first order with anyone.
- Minimum order$10,000
- Per shipment, stated in order value instead of volume. A pallet of vanilla is worth more than a container of charcoal, and below this figure the coordination costs us more than the fee earns.
Who pays your agent.
This is the question worth asking any sourcing agent before you ask what they charge, and most buyers never think to ask it.
The common arrangement in this trade is that the agent is paid by the factory, as a percentage of what you spend. It looks free to you. It is not free: the commission is inside the price you were quoted, and the agent's income now rises with the invoice they helped you agree to. When two producers bid, the one paying the better commission has an advantage that has nothing to do with your goods.
We are paid by you and by nobody else. That is why the producer's own quotation goes to you unedited, and why we can argue with them about price without arguing against our own income.
What that looks like on an order.
Round numbers, chosen so nobody mistakes them for a quotation. The arithmetic is the point.
- Order value agreed with the producer
- $40,000
- Our fee at 5%
- $2,000
- Paid by the factory to us
- $0
What the fee does not cover.
The goods
Invoiced by the producer at the producer's price. You see that invoice.
Freight, insurance and duties
Quoted per route and per Incoterm, at cost. What you pay is what the forwarder charges.
Third-party inspection and certification
Where you want an independent laboratory or an inspection body, they invoice their own rate.
Questions buyers ask.
Why publish a price at all?
Because every competitor answers this with a contact form, and a buyer comparing three agents cannot compare anything. It also matters for the AI assistants that now shortlist suppliers before a person opens a website: a machine can read a number and cannot read "contact us for a quote". The figure is at /pricing.md as well, in plain text, for exactly that reason.
Is the fee negotiable on a large order?
The percentage is what it is, and on a large order that percentage is already a large number. What changes with size is what we do for it: more inspection, more visits, more of the work that stops a big order going wrong. Talk to us with a real volume and a real product rather than in the abstract.
What if the producer offers you a commission?
They sometimes do, and we say no. Accepting it would mean two people paying us for the same transaction with opposite interests, which is not a fee structure, it is a conflict. If you ever find that a producer has quoted us a price different from the one you were shown, that is a reason to end the relationship and we would expect you to.
Why is the minimum stated as $10,000 in value?
Because volume is a bad measure across these categories. A pallet of vanilla beans and a full container of charcoal briquettes are not comparable in weight, space or work, and they are comparable in value. Below this figure the coordination, the documents and the visits cost more than the fee earns, so we would be doing you a favour badly instead of a job properly.
Do I pay before or after?
Terms are agreed in writing per order, alongside the producer's own payment terms, which are theirs and not ours. Anyone who tells you the payment structure of an Indonesian export order before knowing the product and the producer is guessing, and the guide on paying suppliers explains why.
Tell us what you need.
Product, quantity and destination port is enough to start. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.