Buisness thread: questions and answers
 

Couldn't find a buisness thread so I figured I'd start this one....




My question is, if you want to export some goods to a few countries in europe....how would you go about it? For example, lets say you have a company in Russia who wants a certain protein ( kind of like soy protein) and they want about 20 tons of it each month along with 150 tons of a metal (like iron in vitamins) as well. But, it's too expensive to buy in Europe being as it's really cheap here in the states and they need someone here to buy it and export it to them over seas (They have restrictions there where they personally cant buy it from the U.S., they have to have a middle man.) Does anyone know how one would go about to do this? Do you have to have a license, permit? I'm talking about a lot of stuff, not something UPS can do for you.

For Russia, be very careful. You need to find the appropriate gate keeper to import safely. In many cases, you'll need to talk to the mafia.

For permit, talk to the American embassy in the country you are interested in. In particular, talk to the trade office. They'll have every info you need. They might even introduce you to the right people.

I've got everything covered at the gate keeper end. It's like this...the people in Russia have a contact here which is my fiance's uncle and he, inturn, needs me for the buy here in the states since his English is shitty and his accent is thick. In a sense, he wouldn't be taken seriously nor could he really deal with reps of companies that we'd be making large purchases for exporting. Would I personally need the permits? I mean, I know if I were the one exporting the goods I would definitley need them. However, lets say i bought the good here and on paper sold them to my fiance's uncle and he then sold shipped it to Russia....I know he would need the permits, license's etc etc...but would I?

You need a 3rd party freight forwarder. Depending on the speed of which you want the goods to arrive in the other country you will need someone who specializes in Ocean and/or Air export - sounds like Ocean in your case because of the weights. They will have someone on staff with a customs brokerage license who can answer to rest of your questions.

Do you have any idea as to how/where I could find a 3rd party freight forwarder?

http://www.forwarders.com/StateDirectory/FL.html

This might help. It's just a list of freight companies that work out of Florida.

My sister worked for a pharmaceutical company. They imported and exported medicine and ingredients used in medicines. I'll ask her about this if you want. I know that logistics was a major part of their business. She also had to deal with the FDA and getting their products certified. It can take weeks or even months to ship products internationally.

Craig, you'd definitely want a freight forwarder because there is an unimaginable amount of red tape and they would be able to guide you through the entire process.

You would of course want to get quotes, but the major player in the freight forwarding industry is Kuehne & Nagel. Their website is www.kn-portal.com . If you want to speak directly to someone in their Miami office (that's near you, right?) here is that info:

Physical Address:
Kuehne & Nagel
8550 NW 17th Street
Suite 110
Miami, FL 33126

Mailing Address:
Kuehne & Nagel
Box 520933
Miami, FL 33152

E Mail Contact:
helmar.hecht@kuehne-nagel.com

Phone:
(305)592-0793


Good luck! Hope this info helps point you in the right direction :)

I sent you a PM.

I wrote you back. Check it. :cool:

Thanks, Cream. And if you would, please ask your sister about it all and get back to me when you can. Thank you so much.

Thank you Tracy for that contact information...it'll help out a lot. Also, it seems that you may have some knowledge in this area.....are you or someone you know in the buisness? I could really use some in depth explaining as to how this works.

bump

Bump....anyone talk to the people they were going to speak to? Anyone?