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### Navigating Import Challenges: Insights from Suomen Kerta Oy's Experience with Chinese Suppliers ###

Suomen Kerta Oy, established in 1987, specializes in a variety of disposable products and packaging. With production units in Imatra, Kotka, and Riihimäki, the company has been importing from China for six years, focusing on plastic products and candles. They recently added wooden cutlery to their offerings. While reliable partnerships have been built with Chinese suppliers, challenges persist, including long delivery times, competition, and compliance with EU laws. Understanding cultural differences and maintaining direct communication are crucial for future success and opportunities. ###

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### Navigating Import Challenges: Insights from Suomen Kerta Oy's Experience with Chinese Suppliers ###

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  1. Importingfrom China Suomen Kerta Oy Noora Laine 22.2.2011

  2. Suomen Kerta Oy • Established in 1987 • Has three different production units: • Imatra (Paper plates and cups, biodegradable plates and cups, plastic cups and cutlery, fast food packaging, cling films and foil, aluminium trays, coffee filters and customer tailored products ) • Kotka (napkins, tablecloths and tablerunners) • Riihimäki (candles) • Sales office located in Espoo

  3. China importing • At the moment we are importing plastic products and candles. Business started with Chinese companies around six years ago. • Newest product category is wooden cutlery. • Supplier for wooden cutlery is new and the project is almost finished. At the moment, we are waiting for the first container to arrive. • Business directly with producers, no agents or wholesalers.

  4. Challenges • Long delivery times -> creates great challenges for estimating orders. • Freight changes • Advance payment • More competition: minimum order quantities decreased-> more importers • Tariffs -> one need to be aware of Finnish and EU laws

  5. Spontaneous helpers • We started by importing plastic bags. First delivery troublesome: • Mixed pallets caused a lot of extra work for our warehouse. • Another incident was with pizza boxes. Our supplier used new way of packing, thinking it would be helpful: • two full containers of pizza packages needed to be repacked.

  6. Problems • Once we’ve used agent as intermediary. Product wasn’t what is was suppose to be! • Private label bags withdrawn from the market because of abnormal odor on the bags • Silver cutlery - The Finnish Custom laboratories made a sample analysis test for silver cutlery. Result was rejected because the overall migration was over the EU-plastic directive. • This case is still on the table

  7. Present and future • All in all Chinese companies are reliable partners. Co-operation is working very well with our long term suppliers. • Surely one needs to be aware of the cultural differences: to our knowledge it’s good to meet Chinese people face to face. • Lots of opportunities: perhaps new products in the future for us as well?

  8. THANK YOU!

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