The purpose of a request for quotation is not to find out what things cost. It is to produce a set of answers that can be laid side by side and compared on one variable at a time. A price is only information when everything around it is fixed, and in frozen food a great deal has to be fixed: the grade, the calibre, the pack, the Incoterm, the volume, the schedule and the certification.
When buyers say the market is opaque, what has usually happened is that they asked five suppliers for a price on “frozen raspberry” and received five prices for five different products.
Start with what you are actually buying
Name the product precisely enough that only one thing satisfies the description.
- Species and, where it matters, variety. “Raspberry” is a genus; Willamette and Polana behave differently in colour, firmness and acidity. The origin comparison sets out why.
- Format. IQF, block frozen, crumble, puree or juice. If you write nothing else, write this – IQF and block are not two grades of one product.
- Grade. Whole fruit grade A, grade B, crumble, and the tolerances that define them. Trade names such as rolend are conventions rather than standards, so put the numbers behind the name.
- Calibre or piece size, with the measurement basis and the tolerance.
- Origin, if it matters commercially or for your own labelling. If it does not, say so, because an open origin widens the field.
- Crop year, which is a real variable in frozen fruit and one that suppliers will otherwise choose for you.
Then the specification parameters
You do not need to send a twelve-page specification with an RFQ, and doing so slows the reply. Send the parameters that will decide acceptance.
| Parameter group | What to state | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|---|
| Defects | Tolerance for each defect class, and how it is assessed | Sorting cost rises steeply with a tighter tolerance |
| Extraneous vegetable matter | Maximum, with the assessment method | Additional sorting passes and yield loss |
| Foreign body control | Metal detection or X-ray, sieve mesh, optical sorting | Equipment and throughput |
| Brix and acidity | Range, and whether it is a rejection criterion or informational | Constrains which lots can be used |
| Microbiological criteria | The parameters and limits, and the sampling plan | Testing cost and the risk the supplier carries |
| Pesticide residues | Whether the legal MRL framework applies or a tighter customer standard | A tighter standard narrows the grower base |
| Temperature | Loading temperature and the transport set point | Equipment class and handling discipline |
State which parameters are rejection criteria and which are informational. Suppliers price the rejection criteria; if everything is a rejection criterion, they price the risk, and the quote comes back high or does not come back.
Also state the method for anything you will test. A limit without a method is an argument waiting for a laboratory to start it.
Packaging, labelling and pallet configuration
This is the section most often left out, and it moves the price more than buyers expect.
- Primary packaging: bag type, thickness, liner, and net weight per unit.
- Secondary packaging: carton or bulk bin, dimensions, and whether cartons are printed or plain.
- Pallet: type, height limit, layer pattern, stretch wrap, corner protection and whether pallets are exchanged or charged.
- Labelling: what has to appear on the primary and secondary pack, in which languages, and whether artwork is supplied by you. For consumer-facing packs the mandatory particulars follow the EU food information rules.
- Coding: lot code format, best before date format, and where the code is printed.
Packaging requirements for frozen product covers the detail, and how cartons fit a pallet covers the configuration arithmetic.
Volume, schedule and the commercial frame
- Total volume over a defined period, not a single load, if what you want is a programme price. A supplier quoting a spot load and a supplier quoting an annual contract are not competing.
- Call-off pattern: monthly, quarterly, or against a forecast with a firm window.
- First delivery date and the lead time you can live with.
- Incoterm and named place, written in full with an address rather than a city. This is the single largest source of non-comparable quotes. FCA, CPT and DAP explains what each one moves.
- Currency and payment terms, including whether you are asking for a price fixed for the period or indexed.
- Certification requirement: a named scheme, or a GFSI-recognised scheme of the supplier’s choosing. Asking for a specific scheme when any recognised one would do narrows your field for no gain.
- Sample requirement: how many, from which production, and how they will be assessed.
What to ask for in the reply
Tell suppliers what format you want the answer in. It is the cheapest thing you can do to make quotes comparable.
- Price per kilogram, on the stated Incoterm, with the currency and the validity period of the offer.
- Any charges outside the unit price, itemised: pallets, loading, documentation, inspection.
- Minimum order quantity and the price break structure, if there is one.
- Lead time from order to loading.
- Available volume in the period, against your requested volume.
- Certification held, with scheme, scope and expiry.
- Any deviation from the specification, stated explicitly rather than left silent.
That last point is worth emphasising in the RFQ itself. A supplier who cannot meet one parameter and says so is more useful than one who quotes against a specification it has not read, and buyers who penalise honest deviations train their supply base to stop declaring them.
Common mistakes
Asking for a price before the specification exists. The answer will be a number for an unknown product, and it will anchor the negotiation on something that is not real.
Leaving the Incoterm out. An ex works price and a delivered price differ by the whole cost of the transport, the border and the risk, and comparing them as though they were the same is the most common error in the category.
Requesting an annual volume you will not commit to. Suppliers price against expectation. A programme price awarded on a volume that never materialises damages the relationship and the next negotiation.
Sending the RFQ to twenty suppliers. Serious suppliers can tell how many people received the request from how generic it is, and the good ones deprioritise a blind broadcast. Six well-chosen recipients with a specific request produce better answers than twenty with a vague one.
Omitting the intake and rejection process. If the supplier does not know how the goods will be judged on arrival, it cannot price the risk of being judged. State the sampling plan and the tolerance for a claim.
Treating the lowest number as the answer. Compare landed cost including thaw loss, sorting on intake, rejection risk, payment terms and the cost of an approval that fails. The approval pack is where most of that risk becomes visible.
A skeleton you can copy
The order below is deliberate: identity first so the supplier knows who is asking, product second so it knows whether to reply at all, and commercial terms before the price request so the number arrives on a defined basis.
- Who we are and what we do – two lines, plus whether the goods are for your own manufacture or for resale. Suppliers price differently for the two.
- What we are buying – product, format, grade, calibre, origin, crop year.
- Specification – the rejection criteria with methods, and a note that the full specification is attached or will follow on interest.
- Packaging and pallet – primary, secondary, pallet configuration, labelling and coding.
- Volume and schedule – total for the period, call-off pattern, first delivery, and the volume you would place with a single supplier.
- Delivery terms – Incoterm and named place with an address, currency, payment terms, contract form.
- Certification and approval – what you require and what the approval process will involve, so the supplier can judge the effort.
- What we need in reply and by when – the seven-point answer format above, with a date.
- Contact – one named person, with a direct line.
Keep it to two pages. A long RFQ signals a slow buyer, and the suppliers you most want are the ones with the least spare capacity for slow buyers.
Reading the replies
Normalise before you compare. Convert every quote to the same Incoterm and the same named place using your own freight rates, add the itemised extras, and only then rank. A quote that looked cheapest ex works frequently is not cheapest delivered.
Then look at the non-price content. Did the supplier answer the specification point by point or send a generic datasheet? Did it declare a deviation? Did it state a real available volume or repeat your requested figure back to you? Those answers predict how the relationship will run far better than the price does, and they are free to read.
Finally, tell the unsuccessful suppliers. It costs nothing, it takes one email, and it is the reason a good supplier answers your next RFQ quickly.
A note on what the RFQ commits you to
An RFQ is a request, not an offer, and a quotation in reply is normally an offer capable of acceptance for the period stated on it. Say in the RFQ that it does not constitute an order and that any contract will be on your terms or on a named contract form, so that the commercial framework is settled before the price is.
Vorezan does not sell, broker or take title to goods, and nothing here is legal advice on contract formation. The purpose of the structure above is to make quotations comparable; the contract that follows should be reviewed on its own terms.