Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for Saudi brands

Duty: start at 5%, then check your code

As a GCC member, Saudi Arabia applies the common external tariff of at least 5%, levied on the CIF value — goods plus insurance and freight. That is where the resemblance to the UAE ends.

On 20 June 2020 the Council of Ministers raised customs duties across a wide range of products, with increases of between 0.5 and 15 percentage points, and several textile lines moved to 15%. So a Saudi duty rate cannot be assumed from the UAE’s flat 5%. Ask your Saudi customs broker to confirm the rate for each HS code before you set prices; it is the single most common mistake brands make when they treat the Gulf as one market.

VAT at 15%

Saudi Arabia raised VAT from 5% to 15% in July 2020, three times the UAE rate. It is charged on imports, and for a registered business it is recoverable in the normal way, but the cash-flow effect at the border is substantial on a container of garments.

On top of duty and VAT, the US Commercial Service lists a customs surcharge, port fees, cargo service fees and an import inspection tax. None is large on its own; together they are why a Saudi landed cost built only from “5% duty” comes out wrong.

SABER: registration before the goods move

Saudi Arabia runs its product safety programme, Saleem, through SABER, an electronic portal used to register both regulated and unregulated products, with the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization, SASO, setting the standards. Two certificates are involved. A Product Certificate of Conformity confirms the product meets the relevant SASO regulations, based on accredited test reports and an authorised conformity assessment body; it is valid for 12 months and covers every shipment of that product. A Shipment Certificate of Conformity is then issued through SABER for each consignment, and is valid for that shipment only.

The US Commercial Service warns that the process can be complicated and lead to unnecessary charges if done incorrectly, and recommends using authorised certification bodies. Our advice is the same, with one addition on timing: start registration during sampling, not after production, because goods that arrive without the right certificates sit at the port accumulating charges while someone fixes the paperwork.

• Register each product in SABER through your Saudi importer or an authorised body
• Obtain the Product Certificate of Conformity: valid 12 months, covering every shipment of that product
• Obtain a Shipment Certificate of Conformity for each consignment: valid for one shipment only
• Keep test reports and technical documentation to hand for the certification body
• Make sure the product description matches the HS code on the commercial invoice

What sells, and how we produce for it

Saudi demand spans fast-growing fashion retail, a very large uniform market across hospitality, retail, healthcare and construction, and modest wear. Lightweight, breathable cottons and blends dominate for the climate, with longer lengths and looser fits across a lot of the range.

For uniform programmes, consistency across reorders matters more than first-season price. We record fabric references, thread codes and measurement specifications with the sealed sample so a reorder in two years matches the first delivery, and we pack to the specification your Saudi distributor gives us.

Labelling

Labelling for Saudi Arabia is driven by SASO requirements and your importer’s specification, and Arabic-language information is expected on consumer products. Rather than state a textile-specific rule we have not verified, we take your importer’s label specification at sampling and build to it exactly.

Because conformity certification is involved, label content should be settled before the SABER application, not after it. A label change once certificates exist can mean redoing paperwork, so this is one market where we insist on a signed-off label on the pre-production sample.

Shipping and landed cost

Saudi orders ship by sea from Chattogram to Jeddah on the Red Sea or Dammam on the Gulf, depending on where your stock is needed, with air freight from Dhaka for urgent drops. Some brands supply Saudi Arabia from a UAE hub instead; that is a structural decision for your forwarder, because the GCC customs union and the Saudi conformity rules both bear on it.

Build your landed cost from goods, freight, insurance, the duty rate your broker confirms, VAT at 15%, the surcharges and fees, and the cost of certification. Put it through our landed cost calculator, and ask us for FOB and DDP side by side.