It was clean when bought
No amount of downstream cleaning recovers a tired, damp or mixed lot. The decision that matters most is made at the mandi.
Quality is a process, not a promise.
What actually happens to a lot between the mandi and your container — and what you receive in writing at each stage.
- TestingPre-shipment analysis
- InspectionThird-party welcome
- DocumentsFull export set
- StandardWritten specification
The short version
Three things decide whether a consignment is accepted.
It was processed to the written spec
Cleaning, grading and sorting run to the numbers on the contract — not to whatever the machine happened to produce that day.
The certificate describes that lot
The analysis travelling with the container is drawn from the material in it, and names the lot and container number.
Processing chain
Six stages, in order.
01
Lot selection
Buying happens at the mandi against a visual and moisture check. Lots that look tired, damp or mixed are left alone.
02
Pre-cleaning
Air-screen cleaning, destoning and magnetic separation remove dust, chaff, stones and ferrous contamination.
03
Gravity separation
Density grading pulls out immature, shrivelled and hollow seed. For groundnut and chilli this removes most of the aflatoxin risk.
04
Colour sorting
Optical sortex passes to the purity grade on the contract — 99%, 99.5% or 99.9% — with off-spec material ejected, not blended back.
05
Laboratory analysis
Incremental samples drawn across the lot, composited and tested: moisture, purity, ash, volatile oil, aflatoxin and residue.
06
Packing & stuffing
Packed to your packing instruction, marked to your shipping marks, fumigated where required, stuffed under supervision.
Sampling
One grab sample tells you almost nothing.
Contamination is never evenly distributed through a consignment. Aflatoxin in groundnut can sit in a handful of kernels in forty tonnes; moisture varies between the top and bottom of a stack. A single sample drawn from one convenient bag will pass a lot that should fail — and occasionally fail one that should pass.
We draw incremental samples across bags and across the stack, composite them, reduce by quartering, and retain a sealed counter-sample against every shipment. If a claim is ever raised, there is physical material to test rather than two opinions.
- Incremental sampling proportional to lot size
- Composite reduced by quartering, not by convenience
- Sealed counter-sample retained for six months
- Certificate references the exact lot and container number
Testing scope
What we test, and when.
Standard analysis runs on every consignment. The rest is specified by you, by your destination market, or by both.
Standard analysis
Run on all consignments before the container is sealed, at our cost.
- Moisture content
- Purity and admixture percentage
- Foreign and extraneous matter
- Total ash and acid insoluble ash
- Damaged, broken and discoloured count
- Volatile oil, for spices where it is contracted
By specification or destination
Added to the scope when your contract, your market or your buyer’s panel calls for it.
- Aflatoxin B1 and total — to EU 4 ppb where required
- Pesticide residue against the buyer’s MRL panel
- Heavy metals — lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury
- Microbiology — TPC, yeast & mould, Salmonella, E. coli
- Curcumin, piperine, thymol or capsaicin assay
- Third-party inspection — SGS, Intertek, Bureau Veritas
Documentation
The paperwork that clears your customs.
Prepared in-house and sent by email the same week the vessel sails, with originals couriered or released through the bank as your terms require.
Commercial Invoice
With HS code, Incoterm, contract reference and full consignee detail.
Packing List
Bag count, net and gross weights, shipping marks and container numbers.
Bill of Lading
Clean on board, released as original set or telex per your instruction.
Phytosanitary Certificate
Issued by the Plant Quarantine authority for plant-origin cargo.
Certificate of Origin
Chamber of Commerce or preferential, as your duty position requires.
Certificate of Analysis
Against the shipped lot, with the tested parameters listed.
Fumigation Certificate
Methyl bromide or aluminium phosphide, where the destination requires it.
Insurance Certificate
Marine cover to 110% of CIF value on CIF and CIP contracts.
Common questions
Minimums, terms, inspection and claims.
Ten questions buyers put to us before a first order, answered plainly on one page.
Put it to the test
Send your specification and your MRL panel.
We will tell you honestly whether we can meet it, at what price, and from which crop — before you commit to anything.