“Who are the leading partners for international food distribution?” is a fair question with an unsatisfying answer: it depends entirely on which of five quite different roles you actually need filled. People searching for a partner are often, without realising it, comparing organisations that do not do the same job.
So before the questions, the categories.
The five kinds of partner, and what each is for
The manufacturer, direct
Best price per case, and the strongest technical support on their own product. The trade-off is minimums, single-brand scope, and the fact that most U.S. manufacturers will not handle export documentation or destination labelling for you.
The freight forwarder
Moves cargo well and prices it competitively. Does not source product, does not hold inventory, and generally will not take responsibility for whether a product is eligible for your market.
The trading company or broker
Finds and sells product, often across many categories. Quality varies enormously — the useful question is whether they take physical possession of goods or simply pass orders through. A broker who never touches the product cannot solve a consolidation, labelling or cold chain problem.
The export management company (EMC)
Acts as the export department for U.S. manufacturers, handling documentation, compliance and international sales. Strong on the regulatory side; scope depends on which manufacturers they represent.
The export house with its own facility
Sources from many manufacturers, takes physical possession, consolidates, prepares product for the destination, and ships. More expensive per case than buying direct; the reason it exists is that it removes the manufacturer-minimum and preparation problems that make a mixed order impossible otherwise.
Most importers building a range end up needing the last of these, sometimes alongside one of the others.
Twelve questions worth asking any candidate
- Do you take physical possession of the goods? This one question separates a supply partner from an intermediary faster than any other.
- Do you own or operate the facility they pass through? If storage is subcontracted, ask who is accountable when a temperature excursion happens.
- What food safety certification do you hold, and when were you last audited? GFSI-benchmarked schemes such as SQF are the standard reference point.
- Are dry, chilled and frozen on the same site? Split sites mean extra cross-docks and extra cold chain exposure.
- Can you consolidate goods from manufacturers you do not represent? If not, your range is capped by their supplier list.
- Who checks whether a product is eligible for my market? For meat, poultry and dairy this is establishment-level and destination-specific. Somebody has to own the check.
- Who applies destination-language labelling and date coding, and where? At origin is materially better than at destination.
- Who assembles the export documentation, and is it built from the loaded pick? Documents that disagree with the cargo are the most common cause of a container sitting.
- Have you shipped into my market before, and what went wrong the last time? The second half of that question is the informative one.
- What are your minimum order size and typical lead time? A partner unwilling to be specific here is telling you something.
- Do you have a presence in my country? Ask it plainly. A U.S. exporter usually does not, and should say so rather than implying otherwise — the local role is the distributor’s.
- Will you commit to exclusivity on a line, and on what conditions? Exclusivity you cannot lose is rarely offered; exclusivity tied to performance often is.
Three answers that should give you pause
- “We can get anything.” Some U.S. products are not eligible for some destinations, and that is a matter of regulation, not effort. A partner who never says no has not checked.
- Vagueness about minimums and lead times. These are knowable numbers.
- Implied local presence. Language like “our operations in your region” from a company that has no legal entity or warehouse there. If clearance goes wrong, you need to know in advance whose problem it is.
What to ask about market development, specifically
“Market development” means different things to different sellers. Worth pinning down: will they help with product selection for your channel, provide specification and nutritional documentation your buyers will ask for, support you with pack-size or format changes, and stay involved after the first container? Or does the relationship end at the bill of lading? Both are legitimate business models — but only one of them helps you get a new range onto a shelf.
Where we fit
Chihade International is a family-owned U.S. export house, in business since 1979, sourcing from more than 300 American manufacturers and shipping consolidated loads from our own SQF-certified 64,000 sq. ft. facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia to distributors, retailers and franchise groups in over 30 countries. We take possession of the goods, prepare them for the destination, and assemble the documentation. We do not operate warehousing or distribution outside the United States — that is the distributor’s role, and it is the role we are usually looking to fill.
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