How to Calculate Landed Cost for Linen Imports from India

Landed cost is the total cost to get goods from the supplier's factory to your warehouse door. It includes: FOB price (product + export packing), international freight (sea or air), marine insurance, import customs duty, customs broker fee, port handling charges, and domestic delivery from port to warehouse. It does NOT include your internal storage, processing, or distribution costs.

Duty drawback allows you to recover customs duty paid on imported goods that are subsequently re-exported or used in manufacturing for export. In the USA, Section 1313 drawback applies to linen importers who re-export the goods or manufacture products that are exported. In the UK and EU, similar inward processing relief schemes exist. The paperwork is complex - consult a specialist broker if you re-export more than $50,000 annually.

FOB (Free On Board): Supplier delivers to the port of export; buyer arranges and pays for international freight, insurance, and all destination costs. CIF (Cost, Insurance & Freight): Supplier arranges and pays freight and insurance to destination port; buyer pays import duty and onward delivery. DDP (Delivered Duty Paid): Supplier delivers to your door, paying all costs including duty. DDP is simplest for buyers but usually 15–25% more expensive per unit than FOB because the supplier builds in margin for logistics risk.

Example: 3,000 bath towels, FOB price $3.80 each = $11,400 FOB. Sea freight Cochin to Felixstowe = £850 ≈ $1,060. Insurance (0.4%): $50. CIF value = $12,510. UK duty at 12% of CIF = $1,501. Broker fee = £180 ≈ $225. Drayage to warehouse = £150 ≈ $188. Total landed = ~$15,524 → $5.17 per towel. Compare to wholesale EU-sourced equivalent at €7–9 per piece.

Use these free government tools: USA - USITC Tariff Database (usitc.gov) and CBP duty calculator. EU - TARIC database (ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs). UK - UK Global Tariff (gov.uk/trade-tariff). Australia - ABF Working Tariff (abf.gov.au). Always confirm your HS code with your customs broker before using these tools, as misclassification is a common (and costly) error.

Our standard minimum is 500 pcs / SKU for towels, 200 sets / spec for bed linen, and 200 pcs / style for bathrobes. "Per SKU" means per size and colour combination. We can run 300 pcs (trial run, small premium) for a genuine first trial. Below roughly 300 pieces we are honestly the wrong supplier — a loom set-up and a dye lot cost the same whether you order 100 towels or 1,000, so the per-piece price stops making sense for you. At that size a local wholesaler will serve you better, and we would rather tell you that than waste your week.

2 free pcs per spec — you pay courier only. Courier from Kerala to most countries runs $35–$60 via DHL or FedEx and arrives in 7–14 days. We recommend asking for two GSM weights side by side — most buyers change their mind about weight once they hold both. Sample cost is credited back against your first bulk order.

30% advance, 70% against B/L copy — so 70% of your money is still with you when the goods leave the port. You get photos of the actual production run before the balance is due. You can also appoint a third-party inspector (SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek, roughly $300–$500 for a single inspection) to check the goods at our factory before you release the balance; we will schedule it and give them access. If a shipment does not match the approved sample, we remake or credit it.

In most countries, no — not for commercial quantities of ordinary cotton textiles. In the US, UK, EU, UAE, Australia and Canada, a business tax or VAT registration number is normally all that is required, and your freight forwarder or customs broker files the entry for you. Some markets do require an importer registration (Saudi Arabia and Egypt among them). Tell us your country and we will tell you plainly what you need before you commit any money.

FOB means the price to get goods loaded onto the ship at Cochin port — freight, duty and local delivery are on top. As a rough guide, sea freight adds $0.15–$0.45 per towel on a shared container and less on a full one; import duty is typically 6–12% depending on your country. We quote CIF (freight included) or DDP (everything included, delivered to your address) on request, so you can compare one final number instead of guessing. Our landed-cost calculator does the arithmetic for you.

Yes, absolutely. Certification is not a hoop we make you jump through — it is simply how we already manufacture. Every piece is made under OEKO-TEX Standard 100 whether you ask for the certificate or not, and it costs you nothing extra. If you do not need the paperwork, do not ask for it and nothing about your order or price changes. Buyers who supply hotel groups or EU retailers usually want the documents; an Airbnb host or a salon owner almost never does.

30–45 days for production, plus shipping. Sea freight is 10–16 days to the Gulf, 22–30 days to Europe and the UK, 28–38 days to the US east coast, and 18–25 days to Australia. Air freight cuts that to 3–5 days but costs roughly 6–8× more per kilo, so it is worth it for samples and rarely worth it for bulk. Plan on about 8–10 weeks door to door for a first sea shipment.

Fair question, and one you should ask everyone. We are a manufacturer in Kerala, India — you can video-call the floor during Indian working hours with no notice, and we will walk the looms and the dye house for you. We will also give you our IEC (Import Export Code) and GST registration to verify independently. A trading company will usually decline a live unscheduled video call, which is the cheapest test you can run on any supplier.

Yes. Woven labels, printed care labels, embroidered logos, custom packaging and retail barcodes are all standard. Logo embroidery adds about $0.30–$0.60 per piece; a custom woven label adds about $0.06–$0.12. Private-label MOQ is 2,000 pieces per SKU rather than 500, because the label and packaging themselves carry a minimum run.