Packed Consumer Goods From Sri Lanka: What a Retail Pack Actually Is

Settembre 2, 2026

Buyers who have only ever bought in bulk are often surprised by how different a retail pack
enquiry is. A bulk price is per kilogram and the pack is whatever the mill uses. A retail price
is per unit, and the pack is part of the product. This guide explains what a complete retail
pack specification contains, so an enquiry can be priced without four rounds of questions.

One standing caveat. Every marketplace and every retailer sets its own requirements, and they change without notice. We do not restate them here and we do not track them for you. Check the current policy at source. What this guide describes is what a Sri Lankan supplier can put in your hands, which is the half we can speak for.

A bulk price is not a per unit price

This is the single most common confusion. A quotation of a few dollars per kilogram and a
quotation of a few dollars per jar are not comparable and cannot be converted into one another
without the fill weight, the packaging cost, the labeling cost and the case pack. Ask for the
basis in writing on the same page as the number. We quote retail packs per unit and say so.

What a complete pack specification contains

  • Format. Jar, bottle, pouch, can, carton. Format drives the filling line, the
    minimum order and the freight, so it is not a cosmetic choice.
  • Fill size. Stated in the unit the product is sold in. A liquid in milliliters,
    a dry good in grams. Both, if the pack shows both.
  • Case pack. Units per case. Your landed cost per unit depends on it.
  • Shelf life. From date of manufacture, with the storage assumption.
  • Tariff classification. Different formats of the same commodity often sit under
    different codes, which is why a code cannot be inherited from a sister product.
  • Label. Whose brand, who owns the barcode, and which language versions.

How that looks in practice

These are illustrations of how a pack line is written, not an offer and not a price list.
Notice that the same raw material appears under several codes once the format changes.

LineFormat and sizeShelf life
Virgin coconut oilJar or bottle, 140 to 1000 ml2 years
Coconut flourPouch, 500 g and 1 kg1 year
Coconut milk and creamCan, 400 ml, by fat percentage2 years
King coconut waterBottle, 200 and 350 ml1 year
Coconut, tea and spices all have a packed retail form as well as a bulk
one. If you have been quoted per kilogram and you are selling per unit, you have been quoted
the wrong product, and it is worth going back and asking again.

What we can and cannot tell you

We can tell you the formats a Sri Lankan producer runs, the fill sizes, the case pack and the
shelf life, and we can put a per unit price against them on a named basis with a validity date.
We cannot tell you what will sell. That is your market and you will read it better than we will.

Ask for a retail pack, not a bulk price

Name the product, the format and the fill size, and the quotation comes back per unit with its basis on the same page.

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