Beginners guide to Mini Exportation
panafrican_traders August 11, 2020
Introduction: Tap into the potential of foodstuff export
Mini Exportation of foodstuff involves selling or exporting of food items in small quantity to countries where we have a lot Nigerians in the Diaspora such as US, UK, Canada, Italy, Spain, UAE etc
As indicated by Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and The Diaspora, said that there were as of 2017 about 15 million Nigerians living abroad.
Imagine you are about to sell just 0.5% of this number?
Population of Nigerians in the following Dream Destinations
| Country | Population of Nigerians as at 2016 |
| USA | 380,785 |
| United Kingdom | 201,184 |
| Canada | 68,680 |
Source: Wikipedia.
Here are the foodstuffs that you can export to foreign Countries
Smoked fish, Garri, Beans Flour, Melon seed (Egusi Ground), Ogbono, Cassava Flour, Bitter leaf,
Dried UGu leaf, Palm wine, Hibiscus flower, Yoghurt, Pap (Ogi), Ukazi leaf
Others are
Hot Chili Pepper – Ground, Kola nut, Potato, Semolina, Ginger beer, Soybean, Groundnut, Okra, Cassava, Yam, Honey, Snail, Bitter Kola, Ofada rice, Catfish, Shrimps, Pounded Yam Flour, Poultry, Fruit juice, Cashew, Plantain Flour, Palm Oil
1 KG of Egusi is sold for $4 here in Nigeria but it’s sold for $20 in the international commodity market.
1KG of Bitter Kola is sold for $2 in Nigeria but it’s sold for $20 in the international commodity market.
1 metric ton of Okra is $200 – $400 here in Nigeria, but it’s sold for $4,000 – $6,000 in the international commodity market.
5 pieces of plantain is sold for less than 200 naira in mile 12 market in Lagos but sold for 5000 naira in the UAE.
5 Liters of red palm oil is sold for 2,500 in Edo state but sold for xyz in USA
FOODSTUFFS EXPORTING A GOLD MINE BUSINESS.
U too can Tap into this goldmine business of exportation of foodstuffs and other products to countries like UK,USA, Europe, and make cool money this 2019
The opportunity in export business is TOO MASSIVE, so much so that it can accommodate as many new exporters as possible.
Did you know that more than 15millon Nigerians are living abroad and most of them consume our local food every day?
The good news is that fact that you can start with mini exportation with very little capital…Yes, you don’t have to rob a bank to get start…In fact, we people who have started it on ZERO CAPITAL, find out more in the advance class
All you need to start is within your reach….
What you need to start
In order to start mini exportation of foodstuff you need the following:
- Products to sell
- Contact of Foreign Buyers that you can sell to
- Nigeria bank Account, email address and smartphone
- Export License if possible
Listed above are the basic requirements for starting mini exportation of foodstuff.
ALTERNATIVE WAY TO STARTING MINI EXPORTATION BUSINESS
- Starting in a medium scale: What I mean when I say medium scale is that, in addition to the above listed requirement, we suggest you also have the following, if you can afford to start on this level:
- Registered Business name
- Nafdac Registered products as this will enable us to avoid quality control issues.
- A simple professional website where you showcase your products as this will put you above your competitors.
- Ecommerce Approach: You simply create an ecommerce shop like amazon or jumia.com where Nigerian foodstuff will be displayed. When you have a shop like this anyone from anywhere at anytime can visit your website site and request for any of the food items listed. As soon as you receive the order, you then go to the regular market to source, shop, package and ship the items.
- Social Media Approach: This approach you can start with zero capital. Just go on facebook and create a business page. Do the same thing for Instagram, create a business account. Next step is to post consistently with nice caption Nigerian food stuff you can source, shop and ship to anyone abroad. In this approach, you are simply helping the person to shop the items and so you only charge them for your service which can be 30k, 40k or more depending on your negotiating power. The individual pays you to buy to item.Then you can handle the goods to his preferred shipping agent for shipment.
Market Research Strategy: when we talk about market research what we have basically talking about is you need to ask yourself what products am I going to be selling? Am I going to be producing my own products or am I going to be selling a product already trending in the international market and how do I know which product I’m going to start with. How do I know the price of the product to start with. All of these things are what you need to find out in the cost of doing your market research.
In order to find the international price of some Nigerian foodstuff, you can visit amazon.com
Product sourcing and Quality control strategy: As a beginner starting out on a small budget what I usually recommend is sell products that are already trending in the international market. This is because if you want to go and produce your own products can sometimes be very capital-intensive. NAFDAC will have to be involved if your product will need any form of processing and as you know when nafdac is involved it’s no longer beginner friendly. For those with huge capital to invest, I recommend getting your own products, with NAFDAC/ FDA certificate if you will be selling to the USA market.
Every exporter is strongly advised for their best financial interest to select foodstuffs which they intend to export based on accessibility and availability
Note that if you are starting out as a mini exporter without a registered company or NAFDAC registered product, I will suggest you pick a product from a well known Producer that is already selling in the international market. This way you avoid quality control issues and then as business grows you can think of introducing your own product.
Packaging, Shipping and Payment
Packaging: Packaging is based on the request of your customer. So if it’s an individual you are selling to, you package based on how the customer wants it. Same thing goes for African shops or restaurants, you package based on their request. Some African shop will tell you to bring the food items in bulk and they will have to split it into smaller quantities like 2Kg, 5kg etc
Shipping: When we talk about shipping there are different approaches. You can either use the post office or you can use a private shipping company or use a forwarding agent. So these are the different approaches available for shipping your products. As a beginner who wants to start exporting in small quantities we usually recommend you use the most cost effective means for your shipments.
The cost of shipping depends on the quantity of item you’re sending and the destination of the goods. The higher the quantity of goods, the lower the price per kg. I’m going to drop some contacts of shipping companies you can use to ship your item.
- PRIVATE SHIPPING COMPANY
There is a shipping company in Lagos that ships from Nigeria to the USA and China. Below is there rate
- #3,700 per Kg for goods less than 100kg
- #3,500 per kg for goods 100kg and above
- Minimum of 10Kg
- Additional #3,000 for airline repackage
- Additional #3,000 for NAFDAC ( Foodstuffs items)
- NB: The Minimum they do is 10kg at #40,000.00
Payment: Payment method depends on the approach you are using. You know we mention we have different approaches. One is using a friend or family member in the city they are selling to. In this case you don’t have too much stress, you simply send your item to the friend or family member that person sells to the buyers, collect money and he forward you your payment.
THE Big Question most people will be asking right about now is this:
HOW TO FIND BUYERS?
There are close to 10 ways to get trusted buyers for your products. However, we are to consider just 4 methods, that is using Google, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
- Friend/Relative that lives in the country you want to be supplying:
This method works best for those who have family members or close friends living abroad. What you simply do is to let them know that you intend to start exportation of Nigerian foodstuffs. What they simply need to do is to help you contact foreign buyers in their city.
As soon as you get their contact, you send a business proposal email to them. If the response is positive, you can ask your relative to visit and finalize the deal. Terms of payment, product specification and all necessary documentation concluded.
- An alternative way to find buyers is to google —-Where can I buy “name of your product” in “name of city” e.g Where can I buy bitter kola in Berlin?
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO FOR MORE WAYS ON HOW TO FIND BUYERS
