For buyers

A sourcing agent in Sri Lanka, working for you

Someone of your own at the mill, checking the grade and negotiating the price, in the country where your goods are made.

There are two ways to buy from us, and they are different arrangements. We can sell to you, which is our trading desk, or we can work for you, which is this page. We do not do both on the same goods, and the reason is on this page rather than buried in a contract.

Which one you want

We sell to you Trading desk

Your counterpartyHarker International. One contract, one invoice.

What you seeOne all-in price. Our margin sits inside it.

How we are paidThe difference between what we buy at and sell at.

Best whenYou want it handled, and you want one number.

We work for you This page

Your counterpartyThe producer. You contract them directly.

What you seeEvery number, including what the producer charges.

How we are paidA monthly fee from you, and nothing from the goods.

Best whenYou buy repeatedly, or the order is large enough that the price is worth arguing about.

If you want the first arrangement, the trading desk is at Sourcing from Sri Lanka and this page is not for you. The rest of this one is about the second.

We take no margin on goods we advise on. We are paid the same whichever producer you choose and whatever you end up paying them.

That is the only arrangement under which advice about a price is worth anything to you, and it is why the two ways of working are kept apart. On a retainer you buy direct from the producer, at a price we negotiated for you, and you see every figure in it.

An agent paid a percentage of your order value is paid more when you pay more. Our fee does not move when your order gets bigger, and it does not move depending on which producer you pick. On four containers of cinnamon a year, an agent on the three to four per cent that is quoted for orders of this size costs more than twice what we do, and on ten containers it is nearly four times.

Are you an agent or broker with buyers of your own? Our Trade Introducers page explains how to bring them to our desk.

The problem this solves

You are buying from eight thousand miles away, from a company you have probably never visited, on a grade nobody on your side has seen, and you are sending money before anything ships. If the container turns up wrong, your recourse is an email into a timezone that is asleep.

Grade language in this trade is slippery, and often deliberately. Cinnamon offered as premium means nothing at all. C5 at two and a half inches means something specific. Black pepper at five hundred and fifty grams per liter is a different product garbled and ungarbled, at a different price, and buyers are quoted the wrong one constantly. A specification you cannot check is a specification you do not have.

Who you would actually be dealing with

The people who go to the mills are our own staff, employed by this company and living in Sri Lanka. Not a third-party inspector booked for the morning, and not a contractor meeting your producer for the first time.

That matters more than it sounds. Someone who deals with the same producers every week is told things an inspector on a day rate never hears, and is a great deal harder to send away with a polite answer.

You will speak to whoever would handle your account before you engage us, not after. Book a call below and ask.

What we do

NegotiateWe hold real costs, by grade, from producers we deal with every week, and we negotiate against those rather than against the first number a producer gives a foreign buyer.We report to you in English. We negotiate in Sinhala or Tamil.

Structure the paymentEach leg set against the producer’s own terms, so no part of your money moves before the thing it is paying for exists. Triggers written as events, not as dates on a calendar.We never hold your money and we never take it. You pay the producer.

Check the gradeYou give us a written specification. We compare what is in front of us against it and report where it matches and where it does not.Premium means nothing. C5 at two and a half inches means something.

VisitOn dates you choose. The lot, the storage, the packing and the bags, and photographs where the producer permits them.

Seal a sampleOne sealed sample of your lot, dated and retained here, so a later disagreement has something physical behind it.

Watch the loadingWe look at the consignment before the container closes, rather than after it lands.

Chase documentsCertificates and shipping paperwork, in Sri Lankan hours while you sleep. Certificates checked back to the issuer.

What that looks like on a real quote. A mill sent us a price for black pepper at five hundred and fifty grams per liter. The quote did not say whether the pepper was garbled or ungarbled. Those are two different products and they do not cost the same. In the same week a second quote came back for cloves naming no grade at all, when the grade had been specified.

Neither price was passed on. Both went back with the question first, and the gap was written into our own price record rather than smoothed over. A number that arrives without its grade attached is not a price yet. Passing it on is how a buyer ends up paying for one product and taking delivery of another.

That is what we already do every week on our own trading desk. On a retainer we do it holding your specification instead of ours.

Cinnamon peelers stripping bark from shoots, Sri Lanka

Photograph by Salix Oculus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How it runs

Your account is held in United States Central hours. The work happens in Sri Lanka.

That is the part you cannot buy from anyone else on this route. Email a producer yourself and you lose a day going out and a day coming back, so a single clarification costs the better part of a week. Here is the same question on our desk.

2 pm, your Tuesday

You ask

A question about grade, price or a document goes to your account, in your own working hours.

9 am, Sri Lanka

We work it

Still the middle of your night. We are at the mill or on the phone to it while you sleep.

Before you open

You have the answer

On your desk Wednesday morning, rather than late Thursday at the earliest.

You deal with a North American in your own hours. The producer deals with someone local, in theirs. Nobody waits a day for anybody.

What you receive

1 A dated report each month, naming who we spoke to and what was said

2 A section in every report headed what we could not check

3 A standing call in your hours, as often as you want one

The second one is not a disclaimer, it is the point. Every report carries it. A report that confirms everything is a report you should not trust, and the honest half is the half that protects you when something is disputed later.

The questions people actually ask

How do I know you actually went? Every report is dated, names who we spoke to, and carries photographs where the producer permits them. It also has a section headed what we could not check. A report with nothing in that section is one you should query.

What if the producer will not let you visit? Some will, some want notice, and some will not. We find out for your producer before you engage us rather than after, and if the answer is no we tell you and we price the work without visits. We are not going to sell you access we have not confirmed.

What happens if I am not happy? The retainer runs on a three month term and you are not locked in beyond it. Our liability is capped at the fees you have paid us, which is written into the engagement letter and stated on this page rather than buried in a clause. If it is not working we would rather say so early than keep invoicing.

Do you take anything from the producer? No. Not a commission, not a rebate, not a discount we keep. On a retainer you buy direct and see every figure. If we are ever also selling you goods, that is the other arrangement on this page and we will say so plainly rather than run both at once.

What this is not

Not a guarantee of quality. Nobody honest will give you one. We tell you what we saw, on a date, and we tell you what we could not see.
Not a certificate. If your bank or your own customer needs an independent certificate, you appoint SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek directly and we arrange access. They are the right people for that and we are not replacing them.
Not a letter of authorization for a brand that is not ours. A marketplace asks a seller to prove the brand owner permits the listing, and only that brand owner can give it. For goods we actually sell you we will put our name to a commercial invoice and to a supply letter naming them. We will not write a letter about a brand we do not own.
Not your importer of record. We do not file on your behalf under FSVP in the United States or against your Safe Food for Canadians license. That responsibility is yours and it stays yours.
Not a customs broker and not a freight forwarder.
Not a payment service. We do not hold your money ourselves: holding a buyer’s funds is regulated in Sri Lanka and we hold no financial license. To protect your payment, pay through Escrow.com, which releases it only after you accept the goods, or use a letter of credit.

If we get it wrong

Our liability is capped at the fees you have paid us, and that is written into the engagement letter. We would rather you read it here than find it later.

What it means in practice is that we are worth having because we look at your goods before your money is gone, and because what we report is dated and attributable. We are not an insurance policy on your container and you should not buy us as one. If you want cover on the cargo itself that is a marine policy through your own broker, and we will tell you what to ask for.

What it costs

Start with a single shipment, from USD 1,500. We source it, check the grade against your specification, negotiate the price, watch it load and report on all of it, on a scope we agree in writing before anything begins. We price the first engagement against a shipment rather than against a month, because a month is not when you are at risk. A container is.

After that it is a monthly retainer, from USD 600 a month, and if you go on to it the first shipment fee comes off your first quarter. USD 600 covers up to three products: checking their producers, negotiating the price, coordinating samples and one loading inspection a month. Further inspections are billed at cost. More producers, more frequent shipments or more inspections cost more, and we quote that before you commit.

Tell us what you are buying and we will tell you what it would take and what it would cost. There is no charge for that conversation.

Talk to us before you place the order, not after. If you already have a producer, bring their name and your specification. If you do not, finding candidates is part of the job.

Rather just talk to someone?

Book a 30-minute call. No charge, no obligation. Bring a product, a volume and a destination and we will tell you what is realistic.

Europe, the Gulf or Asia →Our trade desk in Sri Lanka. Afternoons and evenings, Colombo time (UTC+5:30).The Americas →Our trade desk in the United States. Central time (UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer), Canada to Chile.

If you are buying one small consignment a year you do not need this. Appoint an inspector for the day and keep your money. If you are buying repeatedly, or placing a first order with a producer you have never met, or you have already had a container arrive wrong, the arithmetic is straightforward.

SriLankaExport.com is owned and operated by Harker International (Private) Limited, company registration PV 00338032, Kandy, Sri Lanka. We are an independent private company, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Any fee and scope are those set out in a signed engagement letter.