Do I need an import agent for Middle Eastern food, or a direct wholesaler?

What an import agent actually does

An agent typically works on commission, connecting a Canadian buyer with an overseas producer, negotiating price and terms, and coordinating freight and customs paperwork. Depending on the arrangement, the agent may or may not be the party legally responsible for the shipment — that responsibility, under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, sits with whoever is the importer of record, which requires the SFC licence, a written preventive control plan, and a traceability system (CFIA). An agent can arrange the deal without being that party, which means a buyer working through an agent may still need their own licence, or need to confirm exactly who holds it.

Why most buyers skip the agent step entirely

Levant Direct works with eight supplier houses across Jordan, Syria, Türkiye and Egypt directly — the sourcing relationships an agent would normally be hired to build are already in place. A buyer ordering from an already-licensed importer doesn't need an agent, a licence, or a preventive control plan of their own; they need a quotation. Buy from a licensed importer, or import yourself? covers the fuller comparison, including the situations where holding your own licence — or working through an agent to build one — genuinely makes sense.

When an agent relationship does make sense

An agent is worth considering when a business wants to import specific goods directly, at volume, from a producer it doesn't already have a relationship with — a private-label brand building its own supply chain, for instance. Private label Levantine products covers that route through an importer's existing relationships instead, which is usually the faster and lower-overhead version of the same goal.

Confirm any agent's actual role — and who holds the SFC licence — before treating them as your compliance solution; that detail should never be assumed.

Agent, distributor or broker: they're not interchangeable

An import agent, a distributor and a food broker fill different roles in the same supply chain, and the terms get used loosely in casual conversation. Food importer vs. distributor, the difference and what a food broker in Toronto actually does cover the other two roles, so you can confirm which one you're actually dealing with before relying on them for compliance.

Questions worth asking before working with any intermediary

Whatever the arrangement is called, a few questions cut through most of the ambiguity: who is named as the importer of record on the customs paperwork, who holds the SFC licence and the preventive control plan, and what happens if a shipment is held or rejected at the border. An agent, broker or distributor who can't answer these plainly is worth a second look. A supplier who already holds the licence and the supplier relationships — which is the position Levant Direct works from — removes the need to ask them in the first place, because the buyer isn't importing anything at all.