Where we fit
Getting the goods. Selling them on. Surviving the swings.
A trading business is not built on its cold store, its stock or its vessels; those are what the goods travel in. It stands on three things, and all three come down to one question: before the container sails, do you know what is actually in it. That is the part we attend.
01 · Getting the goods
The supplier you were quoted may not be the operation that exists.
An inspector attends and records what is physically there: the site, the equipment, the storage, the processes actually done in-house, and whether the site matches the trading name you were given. Then, if you keep the supplier, the same method follows the goods through to the container.
01
Is there a plant there at all?
A visit to the proposed supplier, recording the site, the equipment and whether the operation matches the name on the quotation.
02
Does the process hold once it goes to volume?
Attendance during production, so a deviation is recorded while there is still time to do something about it.
03
What is actually in the carton?
Piece counts are set by category. Net and gross weights are recorded with the instrument. Ice glaze uses a stated convention. Labels are checked against a fixed list.
04
What went into the container?
Attendance at the loading against a fixed ten-point list: container and seal numbers, container condition, carton counts and condition, loading and securing, temperature.
Our boundary here
We do not negotiate with your supplier and we do not press them on your behalf. We hand you the measurements; what you do with them in the negotiation is yours.
What gets recorded is set by category, not by one fixed number. See
02 · Selling them on
Your buyer cannot open the carton at origin. What they can read is the record.
Frozen goods are hard to tell apart, so what your buyer is really buying is the absence of a surprise at the far end. Our job is to turn that into a document your buyer can read, question and keep. Which means the requirements have to be complete before we go to site, not adjusted after the report is issued.
You decide these. Please send them all at once
- What is in scope: quality, weight, size, ice glaze, freshness, packing, labels, temperature, empty container, seal numbers.
- The criteria you will judge by: net-weight tolerance, ice-glaze limit, defect tolerance.
- The form of inspection and the date you want it, plus the loading date and your document deadline.
- Which photographs you want to appear in the report.
- Deliverables and language: report, weighing sheets, seal records, temperature records; English, Chinese, or both.
- Who the final reader is, so it reaches the party you intend.
Two of these decide whether the report is usable at all
The criteria, and your loading and document dates. Without the first, we can record facts but cannot give a conformity opinion on the pieces inspected. Without the second, we cannot judge how tight your timeline is.
There is one report, not versions of it. When it is issued you accept the goods against the requirements you set.
We do not issue a pass/fail conclusion on the whole lot, and we do not guarantee customs clearance. A report covers the pieces inspected from the consignment in question.
03 · Surviving the swings
We do not touch money. What we take out of the equation is one unknown.
A short weight, a downgrade at destination, a claim that lands weeks after the goods do: none of these arrive as quality problems. They arrive as numbers in your accounts. Our job is to have the measurements on the record before the container sails.
One version of the record
The report is issued to you, the principal. Whoever you then hand it to (your bank, your buyer or the destination authority) gets the same document, and passing it on is yours to do: we do not send it on your behalf. A report altered after it was issued is worth nothing to any of them, which is why the requirements have to be settled beforehand.
Figures you can put into your own terms
Net weight, ice-glaze percentage, size counts and defect counts are measured and recorded piece by piece. What you write into your own contract or balance-payment terms is your call; we do not draft or negotiate those terms.
On money and risk
What we do not do.
A body that inspects and also takes a position in the deal is not a third party any more. The five below are how we stay out of it, and together they are why the record stands on its own.
- We do not negotiate prices or sign contracts on your behalf.
- We do not handle payment, settlement or funds, and we do not lend or give guarantees.
- We do not clear customs, prepare shipping documents, or act in legal matters for you.
- We do not value goods or produce an appraisal of any kind.
- We do not decide whether you ship. We give you the facts; you decide.
Before the first job
Three questions clients ask us first.
How do we know CCI is not in with the factory?
Inspectors rotate on a regular cycle, so the consignments you ship across a year are, at different stages, usually looked at by different people. We do not publish how often we rotate. Reports are issued by a named person and never released automatically. We do not ask you to trust a person's character; we ask you to check a process that leaves records.
Can you press the factory, or write the result to suit our shipment?
No, and that is deliberate. We do not press suppliers, we do not write up a result to suit a shipment, and we do not guarantee clearance. If we took one side of the deal, we would no longer be a third party.
We already have our own person in China.
Then keep them on the commercial side: the relationship, the price, the payment. What we add is an inspector on site at the containers you book with us, each job booked and quoted separately before we attend, plus a signature that comes from outside your company. Your own staff can be present at the same time.
Tell us what you need verified.
Send the product, the site and the dates. We will come back with a scope, a date and a fee in writing, and ask for anything missing rather than assume it. Enquiries are acknowledged within 4 working hours and quotations issued within 8.
Facts and measurements only. No conformity conclusion on the whole lot.