Frequently asked questions

Accounts & access

Who do you sell to?

Registered businesses buying for resale: importers, distributors, wholesalers, retail chains and speciality grocery. To buy you need a trade account we have verified, and a small first order is no exception. The catalogue itself is open without one, and every line names the pack it comes in and the country it was made in; prices show only once an approved account signs in.

How do I open one?

Register the business: its name, the registration or VAT number your own market issues, the country you import into and what you buy. We check that number against the register behind it and write to you either way. Nothing is charged for it and no order has to follow, and the trade program page sets out the four steps in full.

Do you sell retail quantities to consumers?

No. We sell by the container, out of full cartons, so there is no unit a consumer order could be written against. Minimum order quantity is set per SKU as well, which makes even the smallest line on a mixed load a trade quantity.

Ordering

Is there a minimum order?

Yes, set per SKU rather than per order, so on a mixed load it binds line by line. The catalogue shows it on the lines it has been recorded against and the desk supplies it for the others; the trade program page works through what that means for a first load.

Can I get a sample first?

Yes, through the trade desk once your account is open. What a sample carton settles is the pack rather than the formulation, which belongs to the brand owner and is not ours to certify. Cost and carriage are agreed case by case against what you ask for, and the trade program page sets out what a sample is worth ordering for.

Which pack sizes do you supply?

Every pack is its own SKU, so what you order is a pack and a brand name on its own identifies nothing. A can and a large bottle of one drink carry different barcodes and different carton counts, so they are two lines and are priced separately. Each pack is its own line in the catalogue, with its packing on that line's product page. If the format your market takes is clearer to you than the pack code, name the format and the desk will give you the code.

Can I order less than a full container?

A full container is the normal unit of sale, and anything less is agreed case by case with the desk rather than set up through the site. Write to contact@vnfmcg.com with the lines you want and the destination, and the desk will tell you whether a part load can be built against them. For a first order a mixed 20ft carries many lines in small quantities rather than depth in one.

Terms & payment

Which Incoterms do you sell on?

Ex works from our warehouse and FOB Ho Chi Minh City are the standing terms under Incoterms 2020; CFR and CIF are quoted on request. Risk passes to you on board at the port of shipment under FOB, CFR and CIF alike, and at the warehouse under ex works. On CFR and CIF the freight is ours and that risk is not, and the cargo insurance CIF obliges us to place is the minimum the rule sets rather than all risks, as the quality page sets out. Name the term with your lines, because it changes the figure and what your own insurance has to cover.

What are the payment terms?

By telegraphic transfer or by letter of credit, in USD, EUR or GBP. The terms themselves are set against your account rather than published as one policy: they show in the account area once it is approved, and each quotation restates them. Our bank details reach you on a commercial or proforma invoice and nowhere else, so treat account details arriving by email alone as false and telephone the desk before paying. Where a letter of credit is involved, raise it while the lines are still being fixed, so its wording can be checked against the documents the shipment will actually produce.

How long is a quotation good for?

Each quotation carries its own validity date on its face. Past that date the lines have to be priced again, because the buying prices behind them, the freight rates and the exchange rates all move. A revised offer replaces the earlier one rather than amending it.

Documents & certification

What documents come with an order?

Four groups: the commercial invoice and the transport document; a packing list itemised per SKU with carton counts, batch codes and best-before dates; the certificate of origin; and what your destination and the contents add to those three. We do not issue a certificate of analysis and cannot obtain one, because we neither make nor test the goods. Part of that fourth group is held by the manufacturer and depends on that manufacturer releasing it, and the documents page lists what falls in it. The set for a shipment is confirmed in writing before you order.

How do I check the goods are what they say they are?

Not by asking us to test them: the release testing behind a line sits with the plant that made it, and we commission none of our own. What we do is list batch codes and best-before dates per SKU on the packing list, photograph the production codes at stuffing so those photographs travel with the documents, and accept an inspector you nominate on any order, at your cost. The check that needs nothing from us is to photograph a code from a sample carton and put it to that brand's own office in your market, asking which plant and which date it encodes.

Can you supply under a certification scheme?

No. Certification of that kind is held by a manufacturing site rather than by us: HACCP, ISO 22000, BRCGS and FSSC 22000 are issued to a site after that site is audited, so they sit with whoever made the goods. What we can do is ask the site that made a named SKU for its certificate and pass it to you as it stands, with its number, its issuing body and its expiry. Ask per SKU, because the site changes with the line; where it is not released to us we tell you, and the quality page sets out the position in full.

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