Tea shipping from China

The documents without which tea will not cross the border

Food imports always mean a permit package: sanitary and phytosanitary documents are mandatory, and depending on the product a declaration of conformity is added. Without completed papers the consignment stands at customs, and for food products every day of standing is also a risk to the product itself.

We prepare these documents ourselves, as part of the service — in conjunction with product certification. What your particular line requires we determine before departure from the product description and the label, and we prepare the documents in parallel with the supply — so that customs clearance goes through with a complete package.

This applies not only to tea: spices, dried mushrooms and berries, noodles, sauces, snacks and other ambient groceries travel under the same rules.

Packing: tea does not forgive odours or moisture

Tea is hygroscopic and absorbs odours — a consignment that has spent two months next to household chemicals in ordinary packaging will arrive spoiled even with the boxes intact. So packing here is not an optional extra but part of protecting the goods.

At our warehouse in China we check how the factory packed the goods and reinforce it where needed: a sealed inner layer, heavy-duty shipping cartons and, above all, stowage in the consolidated load away from strongly scented goods. All of this is done before departure; in Ukraine it is too late to fix.

Several factories — one consignment

Tea is rarely bought from a single supplier: green from one province, oolong from another, pu-erh from a third, packaging from a separate factory. Shipping each line separately is expensive and inconvenient.

The scheme that works is consolidation: all suppliers deliver to our warehouse in China, we receive the goods, check them, repack and send them as a single consignment — one set of documents, one rate, one shipment at customs. For a regular product range this becomes the standard supply rhythm.

Modes and transit times

Tea has a normal shelf life, so the default mode is sea, as consolidated cargo: around 70 days and the lowest cost per kilogram. Rail at 35–45 days is for when you have to make a season. Air from 10 days makes sense for expensive grades and samples of a new range.

One limit we state plainly: we do not carry temperature-controlled cargo. Ordinary tea does not need it, but if your product requires refrigeration in transit, we are not the right partner.

We calculate the rate for the specific consignment and fix it before departure; what the figure depends on is set out on the page "What your rate depends on".