What to check before you accept a container of Indian pulses

Most disputes over a container of pulses are decided in the first twenty minutes after the doors open, and usually by what was not checked rather than what was. This is the checklist we would want our own buyers to use, including on our containers.

Before the doors open

• Seal number. Photograph it before it is cut and match it against the bill of lading and the packing list. If the seal number does not match, stop and call the supplier before you open anything. Everything after this point becomes contestable if you skip it.
• Container condition. Walk the outside. Dents, rust, and patched holes are where water gets in. Note them with photographs.
• Documentation set. Invoice, packing list, certificate of analysis, phytosanitary certificate, certificate of origin, and any inspection report. Confirm the lot reference on the analysis matches what is on the bags.

The moment the doors open

• Smell it. This sounds unscientific and it is the fastest diagnostic you have. Musty, sour or fermented is moisture damage. A chemical smell means something was stored or treated badly. Trust it and investigate.
• Look up. Condensation on the container roof — container rain — drips onto the top layer of bags during temperature swings at sea. The top rows tell you the story, not the bottom ones.
• Check the stow. Collapsed, leaning or shifted stacks mean the load moved in transit, which means torn bags and mixed lots.

Sampling properly

The single most common mistake is sampling only the bags at the door. Those are the ones the loader chose to put where you would see them.

• Draw from the front, the middle and the back of the container, and from top, middle and bottom of the stack.
• Use a probe through the bag rather than taking from the open mouth, so you get grain from the centre.
• Combine into one composite sample, then split it. Keep half sealed and signed. If there is a dispute later, this retained sample is your entire case.

What to check in the sample

• Moisture. Use a meter, not a hand. It is the variable most likely to cause a loss and the easiest to measure objectively.
• Broken and fines. Weigh, do not estimate. A hundred gram sample and a sieve settles arguments that eyesight starts.
• Foreign matter. Spread the sample on a flat tray under good light. Stone, mud, chaff, other grain.
• Infestation. Live insects, webbing, bore holes, and powder at the bottom of the bag. Check this first if the container has been in transit through warm water.
• Uniformity. Does the composite sample look like the pre-shipment sample you approved? This is the question the whole exercise is really answering.

If something is wrong

Photograph everything before you move a single bag — the stack, the damage, the seal, the sample. Notify the supplier in writing the same day, with the photographs and the retained sample reference. Do not start redistributing the goods before you have done this; once the container is broken up, the evidence is gone and so is your position.

Then talk to the supplier rather than the lawyer first. A mill that intends to keep your business will deal with a genuine problem quickly, because the cost of losing a repeat buyer is far higher than the cost of the claim. How a supplier behaves in this exact conversation is the most useful information you will ever get about them.

The underlying point

A good inspection is not adversarial. It is how both sides confirm that the thing that was agreed is the thing that arrived. Suppliers who resist proper inspection are telling you something. Suppliers who suggest it before you ask are telling you something too.