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Wholesale Produce Terms, Explained Plainly
Wholesale produce runs on shorthand, and most of it is never explained to a grocer opening a first account. 25 terms here, defined the way they are actually used on an invoice, a delivery docket and a claim. Where Shaly Foods does something specific, it says so.
Ordering and pricing
- Line sheet
- The current list of what a supplier can actually sell you this week, with pack sizes and prices. Different from a catalogue: a catalogue is everything the supplier can source, a line sheet is what is landing now. Shaly Foods publishes the catalogue openly and sends the line sheet on request, because the catalogue is stable and the pricing on it is not.
- Landed price
- The price of a case delivered to your door, with freight, duty and handling already in it. The number that matters when you are comparing suppliers. A quoted "case price" that excludes freight is not a landed price and will not tell you your true cost.
- MOQ (minimum order quantity)
- The smallest order a supplier will deliver. At Shaly Foods it is $300 to $500 depending on delivery area, counted across the whole order rather than per item, so a mixed pallet of several lines reaches it. A per-item MOQ is a different and much more restrictive thing; ask which one a supplier means.
- Net terms
- Payment due a set number of days after invoice rather than on delivery. Granted after a credit application with trade references clears. Until then, first orders typically go COD.
- COD (cash on delivery)
- Payment taken when the goods arrive. Standard for a new account while credit is being checked, and not a sign that anything is wrong.
- Trade reference
- Another supplier who will confirm you pay on time. Two or three are normally enough to open net terms. The fastest lever a new grocer has for getting off COD.
- Order cut-off
- The deadline for placing an order to make a given delivery day. Miss it and the order moves to the next scheduled run. Local standing-route accounts at Shaly Foods order against a weekly cut-off, fixed when the account opens.
- Arrival calendar
- The schedule of when import containers land. Out-of-province and pre-booked orders are placed against this rather than against stock on hand, because imported produce arrives on a shipping schedule instead of sitting in year-round inventory.
Packs and quantities
- Case (or carton)
- The sealed unit a supplier sells by. Shaly Foods ships the original packhouse case rather than repacking it, so the unit reflects whatever the origin country packs to.
- Pack size
- What is inside one case, expressed as a weight, a count, or a dozen count for bunched herbs. Read this before setting a shelf price, not after. Herbs are the pack size buyers most often misread, because they are counted in dozens of bunches rather than by weight.
- Layer and count
- A pack notation for tray-packed fruit. "2 layer, 32 ct" means two layers in the case, 32 pieces total. The count also tells you the size of the fruit: a lower count in the same case means bigger individual pieces.
- Mixed pallet
- A pallet built from several different lines rather than one. It is how a small grocer reaches an order minimum without over-committing to a single item, and it is why a supplier who only sells single-SKU pallets is a poor fit for an independent.
- Grade and trade condition
- The quality standard a case is sold against. Normal variation in size, colour, count and ripeness within tolerance for the crop is not a defect. Produce arriving outside reasonable trade condition for its grade is.
- Shrink
- Product lost to spoilage, damage or trim before it sells. The real cost of a case is the landed price divided by what you actually sell, not by what arrived.
Delivery and cold chain
- Cold chain
- Unbroken refrigeration from the packhouse to your store, held at the temperature the specific crop needs. A single warm gap costs shelf life that never comes back, which is why the handoffs matter more than the trucks.
- Standing route
- A fixed delivery day and window, set when the account opens, that repeats every week. It is what makes a wholesale relationship predictable enough to plan a shelf around.
- LTL (less than truckload)
- Freight where your pallets share a trailer with other shippers. How out-of-province produce moves when the volume does not fill a truck. Refrigerated LTL is the reefer version.
- Reefer
- A refrigerated trailer or container. "Reefer freight" is temperature-controlled long-haul.
- Cross-dock
- A transfer point where freight moves between trucks without going into storage. Keeps transit time down on routes a supplier does not drive itself, such as the BC Interior and Vancouver Island.
- Title and risk
- Two separate things that move at different moments. Risk of loss passes to you on delivery to your premises, or to your carrier if you arrange your own freight. Title stays with the supplier until the invoice is paid in full. If you book your own pickup, temperature control from that point is between you and your carrier.
Sourcing and compliance
- Packhouse
- The facility that grades, sorts and packs a crop at origin. Naming the packhouse behind a specific crop is the difference between a direct importer and a reseller, and a genuine importer answers the question without hesitating.
- Direct importer vs reseller
- A direct importer buys from the grower or packhouse and carries the import itself. A reseller buys from a terminal with someone else’s margin already built in, which shows up as higher prices or older stock in tight weeks. Pricing that never moves is usually a reseller’s padded rate card rather than a real one.
- SFC licence (Safe Food for Canadians)
- The CFIA licence every legitimate food importer in Canada must hold. It is publicly searchable, so you can verify any supplier yourself rather than taking their word for it.
- Claim
- The process for a delivery that arrives short, wrong, damaged or off-condition. Produce is perishable and cannot be restocked, so problems are settled as credits and replacements rather than returns. Note it on the paperwork before signing, report within 24 hours with photographs, and hold the product refrigerated until it is resolved. The 24-hour window exists because condition on a perishable item cannot be assessed after the fact.
- Credit
- The usual settlement for an accepted claim: an amount applied against your next invoice, rather than money moving back. Limited to the invoiced value of the affected product plus freight where the whole shipment is affected, and not lost retail margin.