Agricultural Goods

principe

Member
Nov 19, 2002
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Anybody have experience with export of agricultural commodities from DR?

Specifically in the case of sugar or cocoa, how does one obtain legal asssignment to a lender so that he could be collateralized?
 

rescatara

New member
Apr 24, 2009
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big Bi$ne$$

you can make a start in exporting'veg/fruits etc. but i dont think anyone is going to do what you want to do... start small...Just like anything else... first time hurts
I have contacts in the exporting of veg. I also think there is room for fruit and veg exporting....
Try a small shipment.... ask alot of questions...
 

principe

Member
Nov 19, 2002
531
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18
Thats fine. When it gets to the point of the actual ag. goods being held as collateral, you are already talking big $$$.

I want to make contacts with vegetable/fruit buyers in the NY/NJ area, thats where I am now. Sugar, cocoa or coffee can go anywhere.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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You are going to run up against major obstacles. Most cacao, except organic is already spoken for even before the harvest. There is a national cacao organization that you might contact.
Coffee is like hen's teeth, with falling production in many places.

You would be better off looking for other ag products.

HB
 
May 29, 2006
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There are intermediaries who broker deals on commodities and they usually use something called a Letter of Credit for moving the money. I once helped broker a deal for a million pounds of sugar in Estonia and it is not exactly like stopping by WalMart for some new socks-- it took two months for the first deal and there was a lot of contract negotiation and consulting a lawyer at $400/hour.

They wouldn't lend money for sugar since they are dealing with very large amounts of product. A typical sugar cargo ship can haul 13,000 tons of sugar and a 20' shipping container would be about 20 tons. 20 tons is a miniscual amount in the sugar business. With cocoa, there are many variables and they normally export pods to be processed.

With a tiny amount of sugar, the shipping could more than the cost of the sugar.
 
May 29, 2006
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RossW here is an exporter of fruits and vegetables for Indian cooking so if you can find markets for these goods you would have a supplier pretty handy. I don't know what 80% of the stuff he sells is but he seems to have a pretty diverse product line.