If you are shipping sensitive goods via air freight to middle east and are worried about customs inspections, you first need to know the 5 ways customs checks your cargo.

1. X-ray scan of the whole shipment

This type of inspection takes 2 to 3 days. Sometimes you may not even notice it happened, because there is almost no delay.

2. Open box inspection

This can be done in different ways. The first is “Open gate” – customs just opens the container door, takes a quick look, and closes it if everything looks fine. This takes about 2 days.

3. Half-unloading inspection

Customs will unload half of the cargo. They might start from the back of the container and work toward the middle, or just go straight in. After checking that the cargo is fine, they release it. This takes about 3 to 5 days.

4. Full inspection

This takes the longest. Customs will unload all the cargo, count every box, and open each one to check if the packing list is correct. This usually takes more than 7 days. It doesn’t happen often. It usually starts when customs finds a big mismatch between the list and the actual cargo during an open gate or half-unloading inspection. This is very strict and takes the most time.

5. Document check

If customs thinks there might be a problem with the paperwork after the cargo arrives at port, they will hold the cargo and double-check all documents. If the required data and certifications are fine, they release it. This is very fast, like the X-ray scan, and takes about 1 to 2 days.

If your cargo has been sitting in the inspection yard for a month without release, then there is definitely a problem with this shipment.

What is more important – to know if your air freight to middle east will be inspected, you first need to know which goods are considered sensitive. The most common sensitive goods in the market today are: food, branded products, items with batteries, cosmetics, local specialty products, liquid and powder, daily medicine, health supplements, and so on.

Why are these products classified as sensitive? In recent years, cross-border e-commerce has grown fast. Many small domestic products have gone overseas. When sellers buy these products, they often cannot provide the documents needed for customs declaration and clearance. So they have to use gray logistics channels, and all such goods are grouped into sensitive cargo. For regular trade merchants, as long as you have the proper compliance documents, you can ship these items as general cargo.

The most important thing when exporting sensitive goods is to find a reliable freight forwarder, otherwise your goods will be seized. Small forwarders in village offices that cut corners – it would be strange if your goods are NOT seized. So what counts as a reliable forwarder?

First, if customs seizes or loses your goods, they must pay compensation as promised, and pay it all at once within the agreed time. Second, they are safe and stable – the lower the chance of seizure or loss, the more stable. Third, the freight cost should not be too cheap. Many people think: choosing cheap logistics is how I lower my costs. But as the old saying goes, cheap things are rarely good. The same goes for logistics. Safe and stable channels are never very cheap. The cheaper the freight, the deeper the trap.

Take our company DL as an example. For air freight to middle east, we ship large volumes. We have built a long-term relationship with local customs. We ship every day, so customs knows us well. When other forwarders ship suspected sensitive goods, customs always inspects them. But for us, they don’t. That’s because we declare everything truthfully, shipment after shipment. After they inspected us 100 times and found no problem, they stopped checking. That’s why our customs clearance is fast – sometimes it takes only 2 hours.