Buying wholesale
What Does FOB Mean on a Supplier Quote?
FOB stands for Free On Board — it's an Incoterm meaning the quoted price covers the goods only up to the point they're loaded onto the shipping vessel at the origin port, with everything after that (ocean freight, insurance, customs duty, inland delivery in Canada) added separately by the buyer. It's a term you'll encounter sourcing directly from an overseas producer, not something that shows up on a delivered wholesale quote from a Canadian distributor, since a delivered price already includes those later stages. Understanding FOB matters mainly for comparing it against a delivered price fairly, rather than assuming the two numbers mean the same thing.
FOB vs delivered pricing
An FOB price and a delivered price answer different questions, even for the identical product: FOB tells you what the goods cost loaded at origin, while delivered pricing tells you what they cost sitting in your own warehouse in Canada. Comparing an FOB number against a delivered quotation without adding freight, duty, brokerage and inland transport back in — the components covered in what is landed cost for imported food? — makes the FOB figure look artificially lower than it really is once the whole journey is accounted for. A buyer weighing two quotes side by side needs to know which basis each one is written on before comparing totals at all, since an FOB figure and a delivered figure for the same product can look wildly different while both being accurate on their own terms.
Incoterms, in one paragraph
Incoterms are a standardized set of trade terms — FOB, CIF, EXW, DDP and others — published by the International Chamber of Commerce to define exactly where the seller's responsibility for cost and risk ends and the buyer's begins in an international shipment. FOB places that handoff at the origin port; other terms move it earlier or later in the journey. EXW (Ex Works) hands responsibility to the buyer even earlier, right at the seller's own facility, while DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) keeps it with the seller all the way to the buyer's door — FOB sits roughly in the middle of that range. A buyer sourcing directly overseas needs to know which term a quote is written under, since it changes what still needs to be arranged and paid for after the quote is accepted.
What GTA delivered pricing includes at Levant Direct
Our quotations aren't written in Incoterms at all — they're delivered prices for goods reaching your business in the Greater Toronto Area, with freight, duty, brokerage and currency conversion already folded into the number. That's the practical benefit of buying through an established Canadian importer rather than direct from origin: there's no FOB-to-delivered conversion left for a buyer to work out, and no separate shipping arrangement to organize once your spice or canned goods order is confirmed.
Related questions
Will I ever see an FOB price from Levant Direct?
No — our quotations are delivered pricing for goods reaching the GTA, not origin-only FOB pricing. FOB is a term you're more likely to encounter sourcing directly from an overseas producer.
Is FOB always cheaper than a delivered price?
The FOB number itself is lower because it covers less, but once freight, duty and inland delivery are added back in, the true landed cost is often close to or higher than a comparable delivered wholesale price.