Glossary
Glossary of shipping, export and coffee & spice trade terms
The words exporters, importers and roasters use every day — defined plainly, with links to where we explain them in depth.
Shipping terms
- FCL (Full Container Load)
- A shipment that uses an entire container for one shipper's cargo. The container is sealed at origin and opened only by the consignee.Learn more →
- LCL (Less than Container Load)
- A shipment that shares a container with other shippers' cargo and is charged by volume or weight. Suited to small or trial consignments.Learn more →
- TEU and FEU
- Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit and Forty-foot Equivalent Unit — standard measures of container capacity. One 40ft container equals two TEU.Learn more →
- 40ft High Cube
- A 40ft container roughly 30 cm taller than a standard 40ft box, giving extra volume for lighter, bulkier cargo.
- Freight forwarder
- A company that organises the movement of goods for a shipper — booking carriers, arranging haulage, coordinating documents and tracking the shipment.Learn more →
- Cut-off
- The deadline by which a container must be gated into the terminal (or documents submitted) to be loaded on a particular vessel.
- Gate-in
- The moment a loaded container enters the port terminal before loading.
- Stuffing
- Loading cargo into a container, either at the exporter's premises (factory stuffing) or at a container freight station.Learn more →
- VGM (Verified Gross Mass)
- The declared total weight of a packed container, required by the carrier before the container can be loaded on a vessel.
- Transhipment
- Moving a container from one vessel to another at an intermediate hub port, such as Jebel Ali or Khorfakkan, before its final destination.Learn more →
- Demurrage and detention
- Charges for keeping a container at the terminal (demurrage) or outside it (detention) beyond the free time allowed by the carrier.
- Container rain
- Condensation that forms inside a container during a voyage and drips onto the cargo — a key risk for green coffee and dried spices.Learn more →
- Jebel Ali Port
- Dubai's main container port, operated by DP World and adjacent to the Jebel Ali Free Zone — the largest port in the Middle East.Learn more →
- Khorfakkan Port
- Sharjah's deep-water container port on the UAE's east coast, facing the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hormuz.Learn more →
- ICTT Vallarpadam
- The International Container Transshipment Terminal at Vallarpadam — Kochi's deep-water container terminal.Learn more →
Documents & trade terms
- Bill of lading (B/L)
- The carrier's receipt for cargo, the contract of carriage and — as an original — the document of title needed to collect the goods.Learn more →
- Telex release / sea waybill
- Ways of releasing cargo to the consignee without surrendering paper original bills of lading.
- Shipping bill
- The export declaration filed with Indian customs, usually by a licensed customs broker, before goods can leave India.
- Certificate of origin (COO)
- A document certifying the country in which goods were produced. A preferential COO can reduce import duty under trade agreements.Learn more →
- India–UAE CEPA
- The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and the UAE, which offers preferential tariffs on eligible Indian-origin goods.Learn more →
- Phytosanitary certificate
- An official certificate confirming plant products such as coffee and spices have been inspected and meet the importing country's plant-health requirements.Learn more →
- Fumigation certificate
- Evidence that cargo or packaging has been fumigated against pests, required by some buyers and destinations.
- Incoterms
- Standard trade terms (such as FOB, CFR and CIF) that define which party pays for and bears the risk of each stage of delivery.Learn more →
- FOB (Free On Board)
- The seller delivers goods loaded on the vessel at the origin port; the buyer arranges and pays the ocean freight.
- CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight)
- The seller pays freight and insurance to the destination port; risk passes to the buyer once goods are loaded at origin.
- Letter of credit (L/C)
- A bank's undertaking to pay the seller once compliant shipping documents are presented — a common payment method for larger commodity orders.Learn more →
Coffee terms
- Green coffee
- Unroasted coffee beans, the form in which coffee is traded internationally and supplied to roasters.Learn more →
- Plantation (coffee)
- The Indian trade name for washed (wet-processed) Arabica coffee.Learn more →
- Parchment (coffee)
- The Indian trade name for washed Robusta coffee; also the papery layer around the bean after pulping.Learn more →
- Cherry (coffee)
- Natural (dry-processed) coffee dried as whole cherries — Arabica Cherry or Robusta Cherry in Indian grading.
- AA, A, AB, PB
- Indian coffee size grades by screen: AA and A are the largest beans, AB a mix, and PB (peaberry) the round single beans.Learn more →
- Screen size
- Bean size measured by the sieve on which beans are retained, used to grade green coffee.
- Monsooned Malabar
- An Indian specialty coffee whose green beans are exposed to monsoon winds, giving a mellow, low-acid cup.
Spices terms
- Small green cardamom
- Elettaria cardamomum — the green cardamom grown in Kerala's Idukki hills and prized in the Gulf.Learn more →
- AGEB / AGB
- Alleppey Green Extra Bold and Alleppey Green Bold — traditional trade grades for bold green cardamom.Learn more →
- Litre weight
- The weight of one litre of cardamom pods or pepper berries; a higher figure indicates fuller, more mature produce.
- MG1
- Malabar Garbled Grade 1 — the benchmark standard-size export grade of Indian black pepper.Learn more →
- TGEB / TGSEB
- Tellicherry Garbled Extra Bold (≈4.25 mm+) and Special Extra Bold (≈4.75 mm+) — the boldest grades of Indian black pepper.Learn more →
- Garbled
- Cleaned and sorted to remove stems, dust, pinheads and light berries.
- Steam sterilisation
- Treating spices with steam to reduce microbial load for markets with strict microbiological limits.Learn more →
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