Importing products from China to New Zealand: a practical guide

Write a specification you could hand to three factories and get comparable quotes back: materials, dimensions and tolerances, finish, packaging, labelling, certifications required for the New Zealand market, and target unit cost at a realistic order quantity. Without it, quotes are not comparable and quality has nothing to be measured against.

Trading companies and manufacturers both have their place — you just need to know which one you are dealing with. Ask for the business licence, confirm the factory actually makes your product category, and check whether they have exported to comparable markets before.

Order stock samples early to assess general quality, then approve a pre-production sample made to your exact specification before mass production begins. That approved sample becomes the reference for inspection — it is the single most valuable document in the process.

A price is meaningless without the term attached to it. EXW, FOB, CIF and DDP move the cost and the risk between you and the supplier at very different points in the journey. FOB is the common starting point for first orders because it gives you control of freight while keeping the supplier responsible for getting goods onto the vessel.

A third-party inspection during or at the end of production costs a fraction of a container's value and is the only realistic point at which defects can still be fixed cheaply. Inspect against the approved sample and specification, including packaging and labelling, not just the product itself.

Sea freight suits volume and weight; air freight suits urgency, small volumes and high value. Whichever you choose, budget on landed cost rather than unit price: goods, freight, insurance, duty where it applies, GST on importation, customs and biosecurity levies, port and transport charges, and storage.

Correct tariff classification and honest customs values matter. Errors are expensive to unwind and can hold goods at the border.

First orders fail for predictable reasons: chasing the lowest quote, skipping the pre-production sample, paying too much upfront, and having no written specification to enforce. Sorting those four out removes most of the risk.

Our Global Sourcing service handles supplier identification and vetting, specification, quality control and freight coordination, so the risk sits with people who do this repeatedly rather than with a first-time importer.