We started with packing. In LCL a pallet is handled several times: at the warehouse in Ukraine, at the consolidator's warehouse and at the destination port. So the workshop wrapped every mug and plate individually, the cartons were packed tightly with no gaps, and the pallets were stretch-wrapped and fitted with corner boards. The pallets themselves had to be heat treated and marked to the ISPM 15 standard. Without that mark, wooden packaging from third countries is not allowed into the EU.
Then the documents. We filed the export declaration in Ukraine and prepared the invoice and packing list in English. For the buyer to apply the preferential duty rate under the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement, proof of Ukrainian origin is required. The trial batch was worth less than 6,000 euros, so no EUR.1 certificate was needed: an origin declaration written by the exporter on the invoice was enough. The buyer also asked for a declaration of compliance for tableware that comes into contact with food. The workshop had already had its products tested for lead and cadmium release in a laboratory, and the declaration travelled with the rest of the documents.
A groupage truck collected the pallets directly from the workshop and took them to the consolidator's warehouse in Rotterdam. From the Ukrainian border the cargo moved under a T1 transit declaration, so there was no need to clear it in Poland or the Netherlands. In Rotterdam the pallets were loaded into a groupage container for Dublin. Container ships run between the two ports several times a week, so there was no long wait for a sailing. In Dublin the container was unloaded at a warehouse under customs control, the buyer's broker filed the import declaration, and we delivered the pallets to the shop's warehouse.
The batch arrived intact, without a single broken mug, and customs had no questions about it. The workshop now has a ready set of documents and a clear process for future shipments. If a consignment goes over 6,000 euros, it will need a EUR.1 or approved exporter status, and we have already talked the options through with the client.