re: Need advice for importing container load from China

Not wanting to rain on your parade baw, but there are risks associated with importing a container.

A friend of mine who owns a remodeling company found a source in South America that manufactured wooden doors. The doors were made out of some exotic wood (forgot what kind of wood), and he could buy a container full for a really cheap per door cost. His idea was to import the doors, store them in his warehouse, and sell them, installation included. He claimed he could make a killing.

He orders the doors and they arrived in the NOLA port, and his was one of the containers Customs decided to open and take a look. When Customs opened up the container, they found a dead bug on the floor of the container. The dead bug was some kind of South American boll weevil that they wanted to make sure did not populate the US. Customs impounded and quarantined the container and my friend had to hire a USDA certified pest control company to fumigation the container, and then the container had to sit f or a awhile and be re inspected to make sure there were no bugs or larvae.

He wound up spending thousands of dollars, tied up a bunch of his working capital, and wound up not making any money on the doors.