Two languages doing two different jobs
The working language of an enquiry here is French. The purchase order, the specification returned with notes, the broker chasing a description — all of it moves in French, and an offer drafted elsewhere slows down before it is read.
Arabic is official and belongs to the other half of the job: what is printed, what is read on a shelf. So there are two drafts. Commercial documents are written for the office; the panel is written for the market the box lands in. One is not a translation of the other.
Where the buyer is looking today
Search does not lead anyone here to a factory. An Arabic query fills the first screen with online retail out of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia: finished shelves, consumer prices, delivery to a home address. A French query answers with wholesalers in France and Spain, a European shelf on European terms. An English query returns trade statistics sites — tables of what moved, not anyone who can load a container.
Three doors, no producer behind any of them. Each adds a step between the factory and the buyer, and a direct container is that step removed.
Three parties, and the signatures do not overlap
The declaration belongs to the importer. The Djiboutian company of record lodges the entry, holds whatever registration a line needs, and stands behind the description written on it. That seat is not occupied from abroad.
The technical file is issued by our factory: composition per line, allergen data, net weight, storage and date marking, carton and pallet figures. We specify each line and send the copies with the quotation.
Label content is our part: drafted to the rules of the arrival market, then read back against your artwork before a printer is booked.
One layer travels, the other is rewritten
The producer’s layer does not change because the destination changed. A composition is a composition, a carton count is a carton count. That work is done once and follows the line wherever it goes.
The destination layer is rebuilt every time: the mandatory panel, the company named on the pack, the entry itself, and the language the panel is set in. Artwork drafted for a European buyer names a European company. It looks finished, which is the problem — it fails exactly where it is checked.
Origin paper is named, not assumed
Buyers often arrive with a checklist collected in another market. It does not carry across. On this route the origin document and the rules that apply to it are named in the offer, line by line, rather than inherited from a neighbour’s file.
Duty and tax work the same way. Those numbers belong in a quotation that states what applies on the day it is issued, with the proposed tariff heading set out per line, because they are read at clearance and not on a web page.
What to send so the offer can be written
An offer is only as exact as the brief behind it. Name the lines — chocolate, dragée, lokum, sugar confectionery, spread in a jar — and for each the format: bulk carton, retail box or single unit. Add the arrival point, the delivery term, the importer of record named on the pack, and whether the panel keeps our standard pack or carries your brand; own-brand artwork prints only after written approval.
What comes back is written: specification, ingredients and allergens, net weight, carton and pallet data, the minimum and the proposed tariff heading. We quote FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP; Gaziantep to Mersin is about three hours by road (how we work). Items outside the range are sourced on request, with composition and format confirmed first.
Which language should the enquiry and the offer be in?
French is the working language of administration and business in Djibouti, so correspondence, the specification and the commercial file are handled in French. The label panel is a separate draft, prepared for the arrival market rather than translated from the offer.
Who is responsible for the declaration on arrival?
The importer of record. The Djiboutian company lodges the entry, holds any registration a line requires and answers for the description given. Our part is the supply side: thetechnical file forwarded, and the label content drafted against the rules of the arrival market.
Can we reuse the pack artwork our supplier prepared for Europe?
Not unchanged. It names a European company and is set for a European panel. Our technical file travels with the line; the panel, the company named on the pack and the entry are prepared for this destination, and the origin document and applicable rules are named in the offer.
