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Saturday, May 13, 2006
Pena: From black armpits of West Africa
By Aurelio Pena
Trading Post
IF you haven't heard of a country called Benin, neither have I -- until recently. It's a very small country hidden in the sweating, black armpits of western Africa, just beside Nigeria, which is more familiar to most people.
Although I don't relish the idea of bringing this up, I thought perhaps it might be a good idea of forewarning Philippine exporters (specifically, Davao exporters) on dealing with Benin importers -- or those who pretend to be legitimate buyers of products from other countries.
Of course, there are legitimate importers in Benin Republic. But after a close brush with a "very serious" importer of fruit juice who made it so easy to close a deal to supply six 20" containers of a big-name brand of pineapple juice, it shattered the good impression we had of Benin.
These guys start their buying inquiry to you with the lead "We want to buy from you!" which usually appears on the subject portion of your e-mail. They'd ask you for a CIF quote of your product (usually food items like canned tuna, canned fruits, canned juices, etc).
Once you give that to them, they won't wince at the price (like most buyers do). Instead, they will confirm their "OK" on your price offer and ask you to submit your Pro Forma Invoice to finalize the import deal.
To make it even more attractive to you, they offer to pay you in cash by T/T (telegraphic transfer) in advance, instead of the L/C (letter of credit) more commonly used in paying for imports. If you are an exporter, of course, this deal looks mouth-watering, since you can have your money up front even before you load your product into the ship.
They don't even care if you tell them that Maersk Lines cannot commit a vessel for the shipment of your products to that West African nation. The crucial point comes when they tell you they are ready to send you the payment and need your Pro Forma and a Certificate of Health Inspection where you, as the exporter, have to register your product and submit a sample for inspection. They tell you the bank needs the certificate for them to release the payment to you.
If you are naive, stupid and ignorant of these procedures, you'll easily fall into this trap. For the inspection, they'd ask you to register your product on a "government" website (which turns out to be fake), pay the amount of $2,500 for the inspection and Certificate.
On top of it all, you are asked to hire a local Benin-based lawyer to take care of the registration and health inspection and pay him another $2,500 for his "legal" services. Mode of payment asked by this "importer" is by Western Union money transfer in either euro or US dollars directly payable to the name of a person who calls himself the "Minister of Health" (You ask: why pay direct to this person if you are dealing with the Benin government?)
We discovered this "import scam" only recently after a close encounter with one fake importer who made you feel so good about closing an import deal. What gave him away was how easy the deal was, the terms of advance payment by T/T, the red tape by his "health ministry," his no-concern whether or not there's a vessel to ship the products, the "registration fee" of $2,500 and the lawyer's fee of
$2,500.
Warning to Davao exporters: If you encounter an import deal similar to this, stop the deal, don't answer their e-mails and report it to the Department of Trade and Industry so it can be recorded as reference and warning to other Philippine exporters getting offers to buy their products from fake Benin importers. (For your comments, e-mail me at aurelio_pena@yahoo.com)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 13, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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