Exporting From Thailand

[kinkhao]

I am planning to ship restaurant furniture and kitchen equipment to Europe for afew restaurants I am opening. Has anyone had any experiences in this area?? Any recommendations??

[jaiyen17]

Hi there,

My thai fiance and I have a business where we export handicrafts, jewelerly clothing and garden furniture to my store in California. We buy and wharehouse it here in thailand and then ship via container to the u.s. Here is some info for you from my experience. I am not familiar at all with "kitchen equiptment"

1. Container charges are done by the cubic meter. You can expect to pay between 7,000 baht and 10,000 baht per cubic meter depending on whether you are shipping from Chiang mai or Bangkok. Bangkok is cheaper because from chiang mai they have to get it to Bangkok. Usually the price is discounted after a certain # of cubic such as anything over 7 cubic may go down to 6,000 baht. This all depends on the company. Cheaper is not always better! A full container like you see in shipping yards is about 26 cubic meter. You can fill it or share it with others. Your shipping company will organize that.

2. Wood furniture needs to be crated & fumigated for america. I would expect the same for your country. The price per cubic should include these services. It also can include pick up from the location of the producer. ex. they will pick up your furniture at the furniture shop.

3. There is no duty charged in the U.S for products such as these. I only pay duty on cotton as it competes with american cotton. Check this out before you ship so you will know what to expect.

4. It's best to invoice your seperate products seperately. This way if one product gets stuck in customs they will release the other.

5. From thailand to the u.s it takes exactely 1 month to arrive. Then it depends on your broker and what items you have for how long it takes to clear.

I could probably give you some leads if you're interested on shipping companies although I'm in the process of making a change myself. If you ever go to Jatujak market there are a lot there. The one we chose last year was too far out of Bangkok and they didn't fill the cubic space to my liking. A lot of empty room that could have been filled with other product such as garden decor that they boxed seperately and charged me for. This is the kind of thing you want to look out for. I would reccommend having someone if not yourself check the shipment before the crates are sealed to make sure it is truly "packed" We could have fit a whole family in our empty space.

Good luck!