Import & export consulting
End-to-end structuring of a trade lane: what to buy, from whom, on what terms, and how it physically moves.
- Landed-cost modelling
- Incoterms & payment structure
- Customs documentation review
Cairo · Dubai · Rotterdam
Egyptian produce,
moved with certainty
I help importers, distributors and investors buy from Egypt without the guesswork — verified growers, audited packhouses, correct paperwork, and a cold chain that holds from the field to your door.
18
Years in trade
24
Destination markets
3,850
Containers / year
Navel oranges · 27.5 tEGLX 4421876 · HS 0805.10
+4.2 °C
At sea
Seedless grapes · 12 tAWB 077-4419 · HS 0806.10
+1.0 °C
Air · CAI
Golden onions · 26 tEGLX 3390124 · HS 0703.10
+2.8 °C
Cleared
Reefer integrity 99.4%
Rejection rate 0.6%
Who you work with
Eighteen harvests, one standard
Trade is a relationship business built on a paper trail. I bring both — the growers who answer the phone at 5 a.m., and the documentation that clears customs the first time.
Yasser Zaki
Founder · Trade Advisory
- Based Cairo & Dubai
- Since 2008
- Languages AR · EN · FR
- Focus Fresh produce
- Network 340+ growers
I started on the loading dock of a citrus packhouse in Beheira, counting cartons before dawn. Eighteen seasons later I still walk the fields before I recommend a supplier — because a specification sheet cannot tell you whether a farm has water rights in August.
Between 2008 and 2016 I ran export operations for two of Egypt's largest agricultural exporters, moving citrus, potatoes and onions into the Gulf, Russia and Northern Europe. In 2017 I went independent because buyers kept asking the same thing: someone on the ground who works for them, not for the shipper.
Today I advise buyers, investors and entrepreneurs on both directions of the trade — sourcing out of Egypt, and entering Egyptian and Gulf markets from abroad. The work is unglamorous and precise: supplier audits, contract terms, quality protocols, freight structure, and the phone call that resolves a hold at the port before it becomes a claim.
340+ vetted growers
Audited across Beheira, Nubaria, Minya, Ismailia and Fayoum.
GLOBALG.A.P. fluent
Certification readiness, BRCGS packhouse prep and buyer-specific protocols.
Bilingual contracts
Arabic and English documentation aligned to Incoterms 2020.
On-ground presence
Cairo office, Dubai representation, seasonal inspection team.
"Nobody loses money on the price. They lose it on the fourteen small things nobody checked."
Core services
Advisory that ends in a shipment
Eight engagements, each with a defined deliverable. Most clients start with one and expand once the first container lands clean.
Supplier & buyer matching
Introductions that survive due diligence. Every counterparty is visited, referenced and volume-tested before you meet them.
- On-site farm & packhouse audit
- Capacity & season verification
- Trade reference checks
Fresh produce supply chain
Cold chain designed around the commodity, not the truck. Pre-cooling, pallet configuration, temperature protocol and transit windows.
- Reefer & CA container spec
- Shelf-life & ripening planning
- Rejection-risk reduction
Business setup & market entry
Establishing a legal, banked and licensed presence in Egypt or the UAE — with a first-year operating plan attached.
- Entity & licence selection
- Import registry & permits
- Local partner shortlisting
Trade partnerships
Long-term programme agreements — fixed volumes, agreed pricing formulas, and a governance rhythm that keeps both sides honest.
- Season programme design
- Price formula & risk sharing
- Quarterly performance review
Logistics coordination
Freight tendering, booking discipline and port-side problem solving across Alexandria, Damietta, Sokhna and Cairo airport.
- Carrier & rate negotiation
- Booking & rollover management
- Port inspection attendance
Strategic development
Where to grow next. Category expansion, new corridors, and the investment case behind each — written to be shown to a board.
- Market sizing & pricing study
- Competitor & tariff mapping
- Three-year expansion plan
Quality & compliance
Certification readiness and inspection protocols so consignments meet EU, GCC and UK requirements before they load.
- GLOBALG.A.P. & BRCGS prep
- Phytosanitary & MRL screening
- Pre-shipment inspection SOPs
Categories served
What Egypt does better, and when
Egypt's advantage is the calendar. These are the windows I build programmes around — gold marks the shipping season, the brightest band is peak quality and best pricing.
Citrus — oranges & mandarins
HS 0805Valencia and Navel out of Beheira and Nubaria. Egypt's single strongest export category and the backbone of most first programmes.
JFMAMJJASOND
Potatoes
HS 0701.90Spunta, Hermes and Lady Rosetta for table and processing. Certified seed traceability supplied with every lot.
JFMAMJJASOND
Onions & garlic
HS 0703Golden and red onions from Minya and Sohag. High-volume, price-sensitive lanes into the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
JFMAMJJASOND
Table grapes
HS 0806.10Early Sugraone, Flame and Crimson from the desert reclamation belt. Air and sea, SO₂ pads standard on EU lanes.
JFMAMJJASOND
Strawberries & berries
HS 0810.10Fresh airfreight and IQF frozen out of Qalyubia. Winter supply into markets where local production has stopped.
JFMAMJJASOND
Dates & dried fruit
HS 0804.10Medjool, Siwi and Zaghloul, plus dried hibiscus and herbs. Long shelf life and forgiving logistics — a good first lane.
JFMAMJJASOND
Why work with us
Paid by you, accountable to you
Most sourcing "agents" earn a commission from the shipper. That single fact decides whose interests get protected when a load goes wrong. Mine is a straight advisory fee.
Where deals actually fail
Across 640+ consignments reviewed since 2017, these are the causes behind claims and rejections — and where an advisor earns their fee.
01
No commission from suppliers
I never take a margin on the goods. You see the grower's price, the freight quote and my fee as three separate numbers.
02
Physical inspection, every programme
Farms visited before the season, packhouses audited before the first load, and pre-shipment inspection attended in person or by my team.
03
Documentation done once
Certificate of origin, phytosanitary, EUR.1, health certificates and B/L checked against the L/C before anything leaves the packhouse.
04
Arabic-first relationships
Negotiations happen in the language the grower thinks in. That is where the real commitments — and the real warnings — surface.
05
Answerable during the season
One named contact, reachable across Gulf and European hours through the shipping window. No account-manager relay.
06
Written, not verbal
Every engagement produces a document you own: supplier dossiers, cost models, protocols and contracts you can use with or without me.
Engagement process
From first call to first container
A typical new lane takes eleven to fourteen weeks. The sequence matters — each stage removes a category of risk before money moves.
-
01
Discovery call
Forty-five minutes to establish what you buy today, what it costs landed, and whether Egypt is genuinely the right origin for it. Sometimes the honest answer is no — you get that answer free.
-
02
Sourcing brief & cost model
A written specification — variety, calibre, packaging, certification, volume curve — priced as a full landed cost against your current supply. This is the document everything else is measured against.
-
03
Supplier audit & shortlist
Three to five candidates visited on site. You receive a dossier per supplier: capacity, certification status, season coverage, references, and a frank note on where each one is weak.
-
04
Trial consignment
One container, full protocol, watched end to end. We measure arrival quality, temperature record and paperwork accuracy — then correct before volume commits.
-
05
Contract & season programme
Volumes, pricing formula, quality tolerances, Incoterms, inspection rights and dispute mechanics — agreed in writing in both languages before the season opens.
-
06
Season supervision
Weekly loading reports, temperature logs, and someone at the port when it matters. Retained monthly through the shipping window, with a written review at season close.
Market expertise
Corridors I actually run
Depth beats coverage. These seven lanes account for the large majority of volume handled — each with established carriers, cleared paperwork templates and known buyers.
Egypt → United Arab EmiratesJebel Ali · Sharjah · 6–9 days
980containers / yr
Egypt → Saudi ArabiaJeddah · Dammam · 4–7 days
760containers / yr
Egypt → Northern EuropeRotterdam · Hamburg · 12–16 days
640containers / yr
Egypt → United KingdomFelixstowe · Tilbury · 14–18 days
410containers / yr
Egypt → Russia & CISNovorossiysk · St Petersburg · 9–14 days
470containers / yr
Egypt → Southeast AsiaSingapore · Port Klang · 18–24 days
330containers / yr
Egypt → Kuwait & QatarShuwaikh · Hamad · 7–10 days
260containers / yr
By the numbers
Measured across eighteen seasons
0yrs
In international trade
0
Countries served
0+
Containers managed
per year
per year
0
Active trade
partnerships
partnerships
$0M
Trade value facilitated
0%
Client retention
across seasons
across seasons
0+
Vetted growers
on file
on file
0%
Documentation
first-pass clearance
first-pass clearance
Client results
What buyers say after a season
We had written Egypt off after two bad citrus seasons. Yasser rebuilt the programme from the farm up — new packhouse, new protocol, attended loading himself. Rejections went from eleven percent to under one, and we have not changed supplier since.
What we bought was not oranges, it was certainty. The cost model he produced in week two was within four percent of our actual landed cost across the whole season. I have never had a consultant hand me a number that honest.
We were entering Egypt with capital and no map. He handled the entity, the import registry, and introduced us to two growers who now supply forty percent of our volume. Eight months from first call to first shipment.
The onion market punishes anyone who is slow. Yasser reads the Minya harvest better than the traders do — he told us to hold two weeks in March and it saved us roughly sixty thousand dollars on a single programme.
Our BRCGS audit was three months away and we were not close. His team wrote the protocols, trained the line supervisors and sat through the mock audit. We passed first time and unlocked two UK retail accounts.
He is the only consultant we have used who says no. Twice he has told us a lane was not worth running that year. That is exactly why we keep him on retainer.
Questions
Before you call
The things buyers ask on the first call, answered here so we can spend the call on your actual programme.
A fixed advisory fee, never a commission on goods. Sourcing briefs and supplier audits are project-priced from $4,500. Season supervision runs on a monthly retainer, typically $2,800–$6,000 depending on volume and number of lanes. You always see the grower price and freight quote unmarked.
One full container is the practical floor for a first trial. Below that, sea freight economics and inspection cost make the exercise hard to justify. For airfreight categories such as berries or herbs, smaller consignments work — from roughly 1.5 tonnes per week.
No. I am an advisor, not a trader. You contract directly with the grower or exporter, which keeps title, pricing and recourse in your hands. If you prefer a single-invoice arrangement, I will structure it through a vetted exporter and remain on your side of the table.
Eleven to fourteen weeks for a new category, assuming we start outside the harvest window. Existing lanes where I already have audited suppliers can move in four to six weeks. Starting mid-season is possible but costs you leverage on price.
Every programme contract includes tolerances, an inspection standard and a defined claim procedure agreed before loading. When something does go wrong, I attend the discharge inspection, assemble the evidence file and negotiate the settlement directly with the supplier in Arabic. Documented disputes have settled at an average of 87% of claimed value.
Yes. Entity selection, licensing, import registry, bank introductions and office setup, coordinated with vetted legal and accounting partners in both jurisdictions. Egypt typically takes six to ten weeks; a UAE free-zone entity is usually two to four. I stay involved through the first operating year.
GLOBALG.A.P. is standard across the shortlist. BRCGS, IFS, SMETA, organic (EU and NOP), HACCP and buyer-specific protocols are available depending on the packhouse. Where a supplier is not yet certified but is otherwise strong, I run a readiness programme — most reach audit in three to five months.
Selectively. Fresh produce is where the depth is, but the same corridors carry frozen goods, dried fruit, spices, processed food and packaging materials. For unrelated categories I will say so and, where possible, refer you to someone better placed.
Your current specification, your landed cost, your annual volume curve, and the markets you serve. If you do not have all four, the discovery call is where we build them. Nothing is billed until the sourcing brief is agreed.
Start the conversation
Tell me what you buy
The first call is forty-five minutes and costs nothing. Come with your specification and your current landed cost — you will leave knowing whether Egypt improves on it, and by how much.
Cairo — Head office
Nile City Towers, South Tower, Floor 212005B Corniche El Nil, Ramlet Boulaq, Cairo 11221
+20 2 2735 4180
Dubai — Regional desk
One Central, Office Tower 2, Level 9Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE
+971 4 512 8890