I have been dealing with cashew buyers and suppliers for a very long time now. 
During this time, I have seen one trait occurring over and over, again and again.
I see buyers asking for tough to impossible requirements which 99% of suppliers cannot agree with.
Even if the buyer does find that one-in-a-thousand supplier, that supplier will still not match every requirement perfectly.
So I see these buyers still looking for that elusive supplier, month after month, jumping from potential supplier to potential supplier, without really making a deal.
I call these buyers “Cold Feet Browsers”. They don’t really end up buying anything. They continuously browse the worldwide marketplace looking for a supplier that matches their every requirement, and as soon as they realize that one aspect doesn’t match, they move on and continue their non-viable search, thereby wasting another few weeks of their own effort.
These cold feet browsers are looking for an impossible supplier. Many times, these “buyers” want to purchase all the cashews and have it loaded on the ship for them, without them having to pay a penny until it’s all done.
In other words, they want the supplier to use their own cashews and transport xx tons of these cashews to the transport facility under their own cost, and then process these cashews for the buyer, again under their own cost, and then transport it back to their own facility, again under their own cost, and then pack the cashews, again under their own cost, and then load the containers under their own cost and then transport the cashews to the port under their own cost and then pay for inspection and loading of the ship, again all under their own cost, while the buyer sits back, relaxes and decides to pay for it right at the end.
Can you see the problem with this picture?
What if the buyer doesn’t pay his due after all that expense from the supplier?
What if there are hundred tons of cashews, each ton costing around $4500?
Who will pay for all those processed cashews and other associated costs?
Yes, there are suppliers who accept LC, but they are large established suppliers who also have a higher running cost. Therefore, their prices are likely to be much higher.
Now the buyer wants to not only pay at the end, but he also wants it at the cheapest possible price.
Paying everything at the end (as with LC) and paying the cheapest price do not go together. The buyer can’t have it both ways. There are no suppliers in this world who can offer both at the same time.
If the buyer wants to pay by LC or pay 100% at the end after the BL has been issued, then he has to compromise on the price and pay a higher price.
If the buyer wants a cheaper price, then he must be willing to make an initial partial payment after inspecting the cashews at the supplier’s warehouse. He can’t have a cheap price and expect to pay 100% at the end after the ship has been loaded. It’s always one or the other. A buyer will never find both.
But buyers do not realize this. They still think there are suppliers out there who can fulfill their every need, and this is why they keep skipping from supplier to supplier without taking the first step to making a deal.
They anger and frustrate every supplier they talk to and they themselves get angry when the supplier refuses to give in to their demands.
This is why I see the same purchase requests come around again and again. It is because of this supplier hopping activity.
These cold feet browsers have a particular mindset. It is this mindset which is losing them money. Instead of compromising and getting a deal completed fast, they waste months looking for the ideal supplier. In this time, they could have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits by jumping on the profit train, even if they paid a little more.
Their mindset allows them to blame suppliers when they don’t get their way. If you ask them months down the line, “how comes you haven’t found a supplier yet?” They will answer, “all of these suppliers are scammers”, or something along those lines. They have just blamed their lack of compromise on to suppliers.
They know that if they don’t find a supplier who will give-in to their demands, they can always fall-back on the excuse of scammy suppliers and have someone to blame (other than themselves).
In English, their is an expression – “He wants the moon on a stick!”
This means, he wants everything he can get and he wants it delivered to him without any effort on his part. He is looking for an impossible deal but he just refuses to believe that 99% of suppliers cannot service his request. He still thinks that the next supplier he speaks to will surely be able to bend a little more and make it work for him.
If you were to speak with these so-called “buyers”, you would feel frustrated because you want to help them, and you know you can help them, but you also know they are asking for something impossible. You would think they are idiots for even asking for such tough requirements, when you know that no one on earth can agree to his impossible requirements .
If by chance the buyer does find someone who is willing to match his impossible requirements, he is likely to be conned. Scammers will agree to almost any condition just as long as they can relieve the buyer of his money.
Scammers even work with LC. They send the documents to the bank and send poor quality goods. Worse still, they send fake documents to the bank, and the bank releases the buyer’s money to the supplier.
These hard-to-please buyers will insist on something like LC but they don’t know just how easy it is to still get scammed. This payment method is something that sticks in the mind of the buyer and he is convinced that this is the only way. Furthermore, he is not willing to listen to a better alternative.
It is these types of cold-feet browsers who I see months later still trying to negotiate that rock solid deal for themselves.
I see this again and again and it always frustrates me to see people with this state of mind.
I hope you (the reader) do not fall in this category. If you do, learn to be reasonable and learn to compromise with your requirements. You have to give-way eventually, or you will never import and start profiting from cashews.
Wishing you the best,
Amin Sadak
Lentrica Ltd
