Agricultural Export Glossary

The terms that appear in quotations, contracts and shipping documents, explained for buyers rather than for customs officials.

Documents and registrations Shipping and terms of trade Quality, testing and certification Produce handling and seasons

Agricultural trade runs on a vocabulary that is rarely explained to the people it most affects. A first-time buyer receives a quotation naming an Incoterm, a certificate they have not heard of and a specification expressed in units they cannot check. These are the terms that come up most often in our own enquiries, defined as plainly as we can manage, with links to the pages that go deeper.

Documents and registrations

Phytosanitary certificate: A certificate issued by the plant quarantine authority of the exporting country, confirming that a consignment of plant-origin goods has been inspected and is free from pests and disease. It is mandatory for fresh produce in almost every destination and is issued per shipment rather than held as a company credential. More on this
Certificate of origin(CoO): A document attesting where goods were produced. Two kinds exist and they are not interchangeable: an ordinary certificate satisfies general customs requirements but reduces nothing, while a preferential certificate is issued under a specific trade agreement and is what unlocks a concessional duty rate. It generally cannot be issued after goods have cleared. More on this
HS code(Harmonized System): The international product classification maintained by the World Customs Organization. The first six digits are standardised worldwide and determine duty treatment, regulatory regime and preferential eligibility. Countries extend the code further for their own purposes, so digits beyond the sixth are not expected to match between exporter and importer. More on this
ITC (HS): The Indian Trade Classification, India’s eight digit extension of the international six digit HS code. An Indian supplier will quote an ITC (HS) code, which will agree with your own tariff for the first six digits only. More on this
IEC(Import Export Code): The registration that permits an Indian entity to trade internationally at all. Asking for it is routine due diligence, and the useful check is whether the name and address on it match the entity issuing your invoice and receiving your payment. More on this
APEDA: The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, the Indian body that registers exporters of scheduled agricultural products and operates recognition schemes for packhouses meeting export handling standards. For some products and destinations, routing through a recognised packhouse is effectively mandatory. More on this
RCMC: Registration Cum Membership Certificate, the one-time registration an Indian exporter holds with an export promotion body such as APEDA. It is distinct from the per-shipment certificates that travel with goods.
Proforma invoice: A preliminary invoice issued before shipment, setting out the goods, specification, quantity, price and terms. It is the document against which payment arrangements are usually made, and the point at which specification should be fixed in writing.
Fumigation certificate: Confirmation that a consignment or its packaging has been treated against pests. Required by some destination countries and for certain commodities, and worth confirming before booking rather than after.
Bill of lading(B/L): The transport document issued by the carrier, serving as receipt for the goods, evidence of the contract of carriage and, in negotiable form, a document of title. It is normally released against agreed payment terms.
Letter of credit(LC): A bank undertaking to pay the seller against presentation of specified documents. Because an LC pays on documents rather than on goods, the documents it demands must be consistent with the Incoterm agreed, or the seller may be unable to supply what the bank requires. More on this

Shipping and terms of trade

Incoterms: The standardised trade terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce that allocate cost, risk and responsibility between seller and buyer. For temperature-controlled produce the choice matters more than for dry goods, because it decides who pays for the reefer and who bears the loss if the cold chain fails. More on this
FOB(Free On Board): The seller clears the goods for export and delivers them on board the vessel; the buyer arranges and pays for carriage. Risk passes on loading. Buying FOB gives you control of carrier, routing and reefer temperature settings. More on this
CIF(Cost, Insurance and Freight): The seller pays carriage to the destination port and provides insurance. A common misreading is that the seller remains responsible until arrival. They do not: risk passes to the buyer on loading, and the required insurance cover is the minimum level unless you specify otherwise. More on this
CFR(Cost and Freight): As CIF but without the insurance obligation. The seller pays carriage to destination; risk passes to the buyer on loading, and insurance is the buyer’s to arrange.
Reefer: A refrigerated shipping container with its own temperature and ventilation control. Reefer freight costs materially more than dry freight, and whoever books the container holds the carrier relationship, which affects who sets the temperature and who receives the voyage data record. More on this
Cold chain: The unbroken sequence of temperature-controlled handling from harvest through to delivery. Its defining property is that lapses are cumulative and irreversible: time spent warm early in the journey is deducted from shelf life at the far end and cannot be recovered by cooling harder later. More on this
FCL(Full Container Load): A shipment filling an entire container, as opposed to consolidated part loads. For most fresh produce the freight economics and handling requirements favour full loads, which is why minimum orders are often expressed in containers rather than tonnes.
Demurrage and detention: Charges levied when a container sits beyond the free time allowed, at the terminal or outside it. For perishable cargo these can exceed every other cost line, which is why clearance speed matters more for produce than for dry goods.
Stuffing: The loading of goods into a container. The point at which pre-shipment inspection is normally carried out, and the last opportunity to verify what actually ships.

Quality, testing and certification

ASTA colour value: A measure of extractable colour in chilli and paprika, published by the American Spice Trade Association. It measures the pigment that will transfer into a finished product rather than how red the pod looks, which is why appearance and tested value can diverge. Colour degrades with light, heat and storage time. More on this
Scoville Heat Units(SHU): The scale on which chilli pungency is reported. Modern testing measures capsaicinoid content in the laboratory and converts to SHU. For food processing and extraction, a direct capsaicin percentage is often the more useful figure. More on this
MRL(Maximum Residue Limit): The maximum permitted pesticide residue for a given substance and commodity, set by the destination market rather than the country of origin. Because residues are a property of a specific lot, shipment-level testing tells you more about your goods than any periodic certification scheme. More on this
GlobalG.A.P.: The dominant international certification for how fresh produce is grown, covering water use, pesticide handling, worker safety, harvest practice and plot-level traceability. It certifies producers rather than traders, and every certificate carries a thirteen digit GGN that can be checked in a public database. More on this
HACCP(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points): A method, codified internationally, for identifying where in a process a food safety hazard can occur and controlling it at that point. Certification applies to a facility, so the useful question is which facility a certificate covers and whether your goods will pass through it. More on this
ISO 22000: The international standard for a food safety management system, incorporating HACCP principles within a broader organisational framework. Note that ISO 22000 alone is not recognised by GFSI; the recognised variant is FSSC 22000, which adds tightened prerequisite requirements. More on this
Aflatoxin: A toxin produced by moulds that can develop in dried commodities held at excessive moisture. Regulated in most import markets, which is why maximum moisture content belongs in any dry chilli or spice contract alongside colour and pungency.
Agmark: An Indian quality grading mark applied to certain agricultural commodities. Relevant where a contract references Indian grade standards rather than buyer-specified parameters.

Produce handling and seasons

Bahar: An induced flowering cycle in Indian pomegranate cultivation. Growers withhold irrigation to force a rest period, then resume it to trigger flowering at a chosen time, with fruit following roughly five to six months later. The three cycles, Ambe, Mrig and Hasta, spread supply across most of the year. More on this
Rabi and kharif: India’s two main cropping seasons. Kharif is sown with the monsoon and harvested from autumn; rabi is sown after the monsoon and harvested in spring. For onion the distinction is commercial as well as agronomic, since the rabi crop stores substantially better and carries the trade through the second half of the year. More on this
Curing: The drying of onion necks and outer skins after harvest, before packing. Inadequate curing is the usual cause of neck rot and soft bulbs arriving at destination, which makes it one of the clearest indicators of whether a supplier controls handling at origin. More on this
Pre-cooling: Removing field heat from produce shortly after harvest. The highest-leverage single step in any fresh produce cold chain, because every hour that field heat remains is deducted from shelf life at the far end. More on this
Chilling injury: Physiological damage caused by holding produce below its safe temperature threshold, distinct from freezing. It is dangerous commercially because it is often invisible at discharge and appears later, as with bananas held under roughly 13°C that then fail to ripen evenly. More on this
Hard green: The maturity stage at which export bananas are cut, typically around 75 to 80 per cent, full in shape but well short of colour change. Fruit ships in this condition and is ripened under controlled conditions at destination. More on this
De-handing: Separating a banana bunch into individual hands for washing, treatment and packing. Bananas are shipped as hands in cartons rather than as whole bunches.
Caliper: The diameter of an individual banana finger, measured on a defined finger of the outer whorl. Banana contracts are written around caliper and finger length rather than weight per hand, so the measurement convention should be agreed alongside the number. More on this
Sella(parboiled rice): Rice soaked and steamed before milling, which hardens the grain, reduces breakage and produces a golden tint. One of three basmati forms alongside raw and steamed, each priced differently, which is why the form should be named at the quotation stage. More on this
Stem and stemless: Whether dry chilli is supplied with the stalk attached or removed. It affects usable weight and suits different processing lines, so it belongs in the specification rather than being assumed. More on this
MOQ(Minimum Order Quantity): The smallest quantity a supplier will accept. For fresh produce it is often expressed as a container rather than a tonnage, because part loads are uneconomic to ship and handle.
Ventilated packing: Mesh bags or perforated cartons that allow airflow through a load. Not a cosmetic choice: onions and chillies respire in transit, and sealed packing traps moisture and heat, producing exactly the rot and softening that destroys margin on arrival. More on this

Still unclear on something?

Ask us rather than guessing

If a term in a quotation is not clear, ask before you agree to it. We would rather explain a specification twice than ship against one a buyer did not fully intend.

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