Your first air shipment of chilled fish: an importer checklist
A first shipment of chilled fish fails on paperwork far more often than on fish. These are the things to close before anything is booked, in the order they tend to bite.
Who is the importer of record
Somebody has to be the legal importer in the destination country, hold the import registration and answer to the authorities. It can be you, a distributor or the chain itself, but it cannot be undecided. Ask the supplier directly who they expect it to be, because a supplier who has not thought about it has not exported before.
Who clears customs, and what happens on a delay
Name the broker at the arrival airport before the first booking, not during it. Then ask the harder question: what happens to a consignment that misses its clearance window. Perishable freight sitting in customs is not a logistics problem, it is a written-off shipment, and the answer tells you whether anyone has planned for the bad day.
Labels and product registration
In the Gulf, retail labelling has to be in Arabic and English, and the product and its label usually have to be registered with the local food authority before a chain will list it. This is slow and it is nobody’s favourite task, which is exactly why it should start before the commercial conversation feels finished.
Temperature evidence, not temperature promises
Ask for the storage temperature at each stage and who is accountable for it, and ask whether loggers travel inside the boxes. A logger costs very little and settles an argument that otherwise has no evidence on either side.
Flight frequency decides your order pattern
A daily flight and a weekly flight are different businesses. Ours from Yerevan to Dubai run daily and take about three hours, with one to two days door to distribution centre. Whatever your supplier’s frequency is, build the order cycle on it rather than hoping.
Before you book
- importer of record named and registered
- customs broker appointed at the arrival airport
- label artwork approved in both required languages
- product registration started, with a realistic timeline
- temperature accountability written down, stage by stage
- a documented plan for a delayed or rejected consignment
None of it is glamorous. All of it is cheaper to settle before the fish is in the air.
