Questions importers ask us before the first order

Nico Trading Company Limited is the branded beverage division of Nam Viet Foods and Beverage JSC, one of Vietnam's largest beverage manufacturers. Nam Viet owns and runs the factory, the production lines and the food-safety systems; Nico owns the brands, the export relationships and the commercial terms you deal with.

In practice that means a single accountable partner: the company that sells you the product also controls the line it is made on, so a quality question and a commercial question go to the same organisation.

No. Nico supplies its own brands only — Nico Nico, Zuni Zuni, Boba T and Nico Beverage Topping. We do not produce beverages under a customer's brand name.

This is a deliberate model, not a limitation. Because every case we ship carries the same brands, we invest in the packaging, the shelf presence and the consumer marketing behind them, and our partners inherit that work instead of building brand equity from zero. If you need contract manufacturing under your own label, we will say so at the first call rather than waste your sourcing time.

Two consumer brands and two supporting lines:

• Nico Nico — fruit juice drink with nata de coco, our flagship brand and the line most retail buyers start with.
• Zuni Zuni — NFC juice drink with a sharper sweet–sour profile, aimed at younger shoppers and impulse channels.
• Boba T — ready-to-drink bubble tea with popping boba, in a slim can format built for coolers and convenience.
• Nico Beverage Topping — nata de coco jelly and popping boba supplied in bulk to cafés, bubble tea chains and food service.

Nico products are on shelf in more than 90 countries, with established volume across Europe, the Middle East, North America, Southeast Asia and East Asia. In Europe our lines are listed with retail groups including Carrefour, Intermarché and Système U.

Those listings matter for a practical reason: the products have already passed European retail audits on labelling, food safety documentation and packaging compliance, so the same paperwork travels to your market.

Three groups, with different terms for each:

• Retail chains and buying groups that list finished branded SKUs directly.
• Importers and regional distributors that hold stock and sell into their own retail network.
• Café, bubble tea and food service operators buying Beverage Topping in bulk.

Tell us which one you are in your first message — it changes the MOQ, the price structure and the support package we quote.

Yes. The current catalog covers all four lines with formats, flavours, carton and pallet data. Request it from the contact page and it arrives by email the same working day, together with the spec sheet for whichever line you name.

Reach our export team through the contact page or on WhatsApp. We commit to a substantive reply within 24 hours on working days — not an acknowledgement, an actual answer or a named person to talk to.

Business hours are Monday to Saturday, 8:00–17:30 Indochina Time (GMT+7).

Nata de coco is a chewy, translucent jelly produced by fermenting coconut water. It carries no strong flavour of its own, holds its texture in liquid for the full shelf life, and gives a drink something to chew — which is the whole point.

Commercially it is our category: a juice drink with nata de coco sits between beverage and snack, which is why it holds a price premium over plain juice and why repeat purchase behaves differently from a standard fruit drink.

Different shoppers, deliberately. Nico Nico is the balanced, family-facing line — real fruit, generous nata de coco, mild sweetness, broad appeal across ages. Zuni Zuni is sharper and more acidic, built on NFC juice, with packaging designed for teenagers and young adults buying for themselves in convenience and impulse channels.

Most distributors carry both, because they sell through different parts of the same store rather than competing for the same facing.

Current export formats:

Not every flavour runs in every format. Ask for the current SKU matrix before you build a listing plan.

The core export range covers tropical orange, mango, pink guava, lychee, pineapple and tamarind, with additional flavours running seasonally or for specific regions. Tamarind and pink guava move fastest in Latin American and Middle Eastern markets; mango and lychee lead in Europe and East Asia.

Tell us the market and we will recommend the six to eight SKUs that historically sell through there, rather than shipping you the whole range.

Only within our own brands. Our R&D team regularly adds flavours to the Nico Nico and Zuni Zuni ranges, and a well-argued market case — with volume behind it — can put your flavour into that pipeline. What we will not do is develop a formulation that becomes your exclusive private product, because that is contract manufacturing and we do not offer it.

Yes, and this is usually necessary. Nutrition panels, ingredient declarations, importer details, language and market-specific claims are localised on every export label while the brand identity stays fixed. Send your market's labelling requirement with the inquiry and our regulatory team confirms feasibility before the PI is issued.

Nata de coco jelly and popping boba supplied in bulk food service packs, for cafés, bubble tea chains and dessert operators who need a topping that behaves the same in every batch. Consistency is the product: cube size, firmness and syrup brix are held to the same specification across shipments, so a chain's drink tastes the same in every outlet.

This line is quoted separately from the retail brands. Pack sizes and food service pricing are on request.

The factory holds HALAL certification under both JAKIM (Malaysia) and GCC schemes, which covers the majority of Middle East and Southeast Asian import requirements. Certificates are issued per product and per market — request the specific certificate for the SKUs you intend to list.

Vegan, preservative and additive claims vary by SKU and by destination regulation. We confirm claim by claim in writing rather than generalising, because a claim that is legal in one market is a recall in another.

Valid copies with expiry dates are sent on request. Ask for the certificate, not the logo — a logo on a website proves nothing to your own auditor.

One synchronised production system across more than ten lines, with the same specification, the same raw material standard and the same QA/QC procedure regardless of which line or which shift runs your order. Raw materials are inspected on intake, parameters are monitored in process, and finished product is tested before release.

The commercial consequence for you is that a repeat order does not need a new listing approval, because the product has not drifted.

Yes. Technical data sheets are available for every SKU before you order, and a certificate of analysis is issued per production batch on request. Both are standard, not a favour — your regulatory team will need them for registration in most markets.

Shelf life is confirmed per format on the spec sheet, measured from the production date and stored in dry conditions away from direct sunlight. The remaining shelf life guaranteed on arrival is written into the contract — raise it during negotiation if your retail customer has a minimum-life-on-receipt rule, as most European chains do.

Yes, and we encourage it before a first large order. Give us two weeks' notice so the visit lands on a day your lines are actually running. We arrange the schedule, the site induction and, if useful, meetings with production and QA rather than sales alone.

Yes. Pre-shipment inspection by SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek or your own nominated agency is accepted and routine. Inspection cost is normally on the buyer's account unless agreed otherwise in the contract.

Fruit is sourced from Vietnamese growing regions and, for varieties that do not grow well locally, from vetted regional suppliers. Nata de coco is produced from coconut water within the group's own supply chain. Every intake lot is tested against specification before it enters production, and supplier approval is audited rather than assumed.

Send photographs, the batch code from the pack and the quantity affected. We trace the batch through production records and respond with a written finding, normally within five working days. Where the fault is ours, the remedy — replacement, credit or claim settlement — is agreed in writing against the contract terms, not negotiated informally.

Available on request. Because we ship our own finished brands rather than a bespoke production run, the entry point is lower than a private label order would be — there is no artwork, no dedicated formulation and no separate run to justify.

MOQ for Beverage Topping is quoted separately, since food service pack sizes work differently.

Yes. Mixed containers are normal and recommended for a first order — it lets you test which SKUs move in your market before committing to volume on any one of them. A typical mixed load carries six to ten SKUs across formats, subject to a minimum quantity per SKU.

Container loading figures — cartons per 20ft and 40ft by format, for standard floor loading — are provided on request with your quotation. Palletised loading reduces the count and is quoted separately.

Confirmed at quotation, from confirmed deposit to goods ready, for standard export labels. Add time if your market requires a new label version or registration documents that have to be issued before production.

Peak season — the run-up to Ramadan, Tet and Q4 European stock builds — is tighter. If your delivery date is fixed, say so at the quotation stage rather than after the PI.

Six steps, and we tell you which one you are on at all times:

• Inquiry — you send market, target channel and indicative volume.
• Samples — we ship the SKUs shortlisted for your market.
• Quotation and PI — price, MOQ, lead time and Incoterm in writing.
• Label and documentation — market localisation confirmed by both regulatory teams.
• Contract and deposit — an agreed deposit releases the production slot.
• Production, inspection and shipment — with progress updates, not silence.

Product samples are provided free of charge for genuine commercial evaluation. Courier cost is normally on the buyer's account, and is credited against the first order. Tell us the market and the channel and we will select the SKUs worth tasting instead of sending one of everything.

Telegraphic transfer (T/T) with an agreed deposit and the balance against shipping documents, or an irrevocable letter of credit at sight. We quote in USD and EUR. Terms for established partners are reviewed after the first repeat orders.

Yes — a named account contact confirms the production start, the completion date and the booking, without you having to chase. If a date slips, you hear it from us before it becomes your problem with your own customer.

FOB and CIF. FOB is the usual starting point for distributors with their own freight arrangements; CIF suits buyers who prefer a single landed figure. We quote both so you can compare against your own forwarder's rate rather than take ours on trust.

Shipment is from our main loading port in Vietnam. Alternative ports can be arranged where your routing requires it, with the cost difference shown transparently in the quotation.

Yes. Nominate your forwarder and we work to their booking. We only need the booking confirmation, the bill of lading instructions and a contact at their end.

Standard document set with every shipment:

• Commercial invoice and packing list
• Bill of lading
• Certificate of origin — including preferential forms where a trade agreement applies
• Health certificate and certificate of analysis
• Phytosanitary certificate where the destination requires it

Market-specific documents — FDA prior notice, Halal certificates, SASO and similar — are prepared on request. Send your customs broker's checklist early; it is cheaper to add a document before shipment than to release a held container.

Standard loading is floor-loaded to maximise container utilisation. Palletised loading, including heat-treated pallets to ISPM 15 where required, is available on request — it reduces the units per container and is priced accordingly.

We supply the documentation the registration depends on — formulation details, certificates, test reports, label artwork and factory registrations — and our regulatory team works directly with yours. The application itself is normally filed by the importer of record, because in most jurisdictions only a local entity can hold the registration.

Exclusivity is possible by market and by brand, and it is earned rather than granted at the first meeting. It is tied to an agreed annual volume, a distribution plan and a review period. We would rather set a target you can hit than sign an exclusivity that locks a market and then stalls.

Brand assets you would otherwise pay an agency for: product photography, key visuals, video, POSM artwork, shelf and display guidance, and social content adaptable to your market's language. Because every partner sells the same brands, this work is made once and shared — one of the concrete advantages of a branded model over private label.

Different economics. Private label gives you a higher unit margin and a brand you control, at the cost of building demand yourself, carrying the artwork and registration work, and ordering at full-container minimums from the first day.

A branded product gives you lower entry volume, packaging designed to be picked up without a promotion behind it, and marketing investment you did not pay for — in exchange for a margin structure set by us. Neither is universally better. If your business is built on private label margin, we are honestly not the right supplier, and we will tell you that early.

Forecast with us rather than order reactively. Partners who share a rolling three to six month forecast get production slots reserved ahead of peak, which is the difference between arriving before Ramadan or the summer season and arriving after it. Capacity across ten-plus lines is substantial, but the calendar is not infinite.

Regularly — including Thaifex, Saudi Food, Gulfood in Dubai and WOFEX, among others. Meeting slots at each show are booked in advance through the contact page, and samples for your priority flavours are prepared before you arrive.