For suppliers outside Singapore
Selling into Singapore from overseas
The buyers on FNB are Singapore’s cafés, restaurants, hotels and caterers. When they find a supplier they ask two things: can I trust them, and how long will it take? A Singapore company answers both quickly — its registration can be checked in a minute, and its stock is here. A buyer cannot visit a company abroad, so they rely on someone having checked it. That is why there are two ways in.
Two ways in
Represented in Singapore
Free
If an importer, distributor or agent in Singapore already sells your products under an agreement, you are listed as a brand on their page, under “Brands we represent”, and buyers here order through them. Ask your distributor to add you from their FNB dashboard, or apply and name them; if they are not on FNB yet, they list free first. You do not get a page of your own. A letter of authorisation or a distribution agreement naming them is what we ask for, and we confirm it with you through contact details we find ourselves.
FNB Overseas Partner
S$199 a month
If no company in Singapore represents you yet, you list directly. You pay the first month when you apply — that sends your application to us — and a person checks your company. Your page and the badge go live when the check passes; if we cannot approve it, the first month covers the check and nothing more is charged.
Why we check overseas companies
A café or hotel in Singapore can check a local supplier itself: look it up at ACRA, call the office, visit the warehouse. It cannot do that with a company in another country, so it relies on what it reads on a screen — and online, that has become easy to fake:
- a copy of a real exporter’s website, under a slightly different address
- an email domain one letter away from the real one
- an address that leads nowhere
- a certificate that was forged, or expired long ago
- a request to pay a deposit first, to a company that never ships
- late in a real deal, an invoice from someone who has got into the email thread, with different bank details
None of this is about you. It is why careful buyers are wary of every supplier abroad, honest ones included — and why a check by someone who has done the work makes the first order easier for both sides.
What we check, and what each check is for
- Your registration at home
- Your company registration certificate and number, checked against your country’s public register where one can be searched.
- It shows the company exists.
- The person applying
- A video call with a director, or with someone with written authority to sign for the company.
- It shows the person is who they say they are.
- A call we place ourselves
- To your company, through contact details we find independently — never only the ones in your application.
- It shows the website and email are really yours. A copied website or a look-alike address does not answer that call.
- That you can export
- An export registration where your country requires one, and a recent export document. You may cover prices and customer names.
- It shows you really ship.
- Your food-safety certificates
- HACCP, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, BRCGS and similar, checked with the body that issued them.
- It shows they are real and current. Your page says when each one expires.
- Every year, again
- We repeat the checks every year, starting a month before your check runs out.
- It shows it is all still true.
A person decides every check, not a script. A matching email address helps, but is never enough on its own.
Why the programme costs money
Each check is done by a person: searching another country’s register, a video call across time zones, writing to a certification body and waiting for its answer. A Singapore company is one register lookup and a short call. The S$199 a month pays for that work, repeated every year. You pay before we start, because the check is the work: if we cannot approve your company, the first month has paid for the check and nothing further is charged.
What it does not buy
- A place above suppliers who stock in Singapore. A buyer who needs something this week is shown who has it here first; among overseas suppliers, Overseas Partners lead.
- A place in a search you do not match, or above a company or product a buyer names exactly.
- Published prices. Your prices stay private unless you choose otherwise.
- Orders. FNB is a directory: buyers contact you, and the deal is yours to make.
How it works
Apply
Use “List your company” below. Choose the country your company is registered in, and answer “No” when the form asks whether a company in Singapore represents you. Your application page opens in your account.
Pay to send your application
From your application page: S$199 a month by card, in Singapore dollars. Your statement shows Superagenting Pte Ltd, which collects payment for FNB. Your payment is what sends your application to us.
Add your documents
Your food-safety certificates on your application page, and your company registration certificate when you confirm, from your account, that you work for the company.
We check your company
Your registration, a video call, our own call, your export documents and your certificates, as described above. We email you what is outstanding at each step.
Your page goes live
With the FNB Overseas Partner badge, as soon as the check passes, and the page is yours to manage: add your import details and lead time.
Or, if we cannot approve it
The first month pays for the check. Your membership ends with that month, nothing further is charged, and our email says why.
We check again every year
Starting a month before your check runs out.
What your page tells a buyer
The questions a Singapore buyer would otherwise email you about, answered before they ask:
- Country and port you ship from
- The Incoterms you offer. Incoterms say where your cost and risk end — FOB at the port of loading, CIF to Singapore, DDP to the buyer’s door.
- Minimum order
- Lead time, counting production, freight and customs clearance
- Samples, and who pays for them
- Payment terms and currencies
- Your certificates, with their expiry dates
- The documents you can supply for Singapore import, such as health certificates and certificates of origin
- Whether you already work with a Singapore importer or freight forwarder
Your page carries the FNB Overseas Partner badge with the date we last checked you. Buyers must sign in to see your contact details, so every enquiry comes from a named person in the trade.
Examples
Three typical cases. They are illustrations, not companies on FNB.
An exporter with no one in Singapore
For example, a cinnamon exporter in Kandy with no distributor in Singapore. It chooses Sri Lanka on the form, answers “No”, and pays the first month of the S$199 membership to send its application; the person applying confirms they work there with the company’s registration certificate. We check its registration, hold a video call with a director, call the company on details we found ourselves, and check an export document and its certificates. When it has passed, its page goes live, showing that it ships from Sri Lanka, with its lead time in days. In a search for cinnamon it comes first among the overseas suppliers that match; a supplier with cinnamon in stock in Singapore that matches as well comes before it.
A maker sold through a Singapore importer
For example, a soy-sauce maker in Japan whose sauces a Singapore importer already sells. The quickest way is for the importer to add the brand under “Brands we represent” from its FNB dashboard, with the distribution agreement. Or the maker applies, answers “Yes”, and names the importer with its UEN. Either way, we contact the maker ourselves to confirm it. The brand then appears on the importer’s page, free, and buyers order it through the importer.
A Singapore subsidiary of a foreign maker
For example, a foreign maker’s Singapore subsidiary, registered with ACRA under its own UEN. It is a Singapore company, so it lists free like any other: it chooses “In Singapore” on the form, and we check it the way we check every Singapore company — its UEN on ACRA’s register, its address here, a Singapore number and its own website.
Common questions
- What do I get as an FNB Overseas Partner?
- A page on FNB that Singapore cafés, restaurants, hotels and caterers find when they search for what you make, with the FNB Overseas Partner badge and the date we checked you, your import details — port, Incoterms, minimum order, lead time, samples, payment terms, import documents — and your checked certificates. Among the overseas suppliers that match a search, partners come first. Buyers sign in to contact you, so every enquiry comes from a named person in the trade.
- What does it cost, and when do I pay?
- S$199 a month, by card, in Singapore dollars. You pay when you apply, from your application page: your payment is what sends your application to us, and the check starts when it clears.
- Why do I pay before the check?
- Because the check is the work. A person searches your country’s register, holds a video call across time zones, places our own call and writes to the bodies that issued your certificates. Paying first means we do that work for the companies that intend to list, and the first month pays for it whatever the outcome.
- What if you cannot approve us?
- The first month covers the check. Your membership ends with that month, nothing further is charged, and our email says why. If something changes — a certificate renewed, a document found — write to us and a person looks again.
- What do I need to have ready?
- Your company registration certificate and number; a director, or someone with written authority to sign, for a short video call; a recent export document (you may cover prices and customer names) and an export registration where your country requires one; and your food-safety certificates — HACCP, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, BRCGS or similar. You add the certificates on your application page once you have paid.
- How long does the check take?
- It depends mostly on arranging the video call and on hearing back from the bodies that issued your certificates. We email you what is outstanding at each step, and your page goes live the moment the check passes.
- Who charges my card?
- Payment is taken by Stripe, and card details never reach FNB. Your statement and receipt show Superagenting Pte Ltd (UEN 202309948R), which collects payment for FNB. FNB.com.sg is operated by Food & Beverage Pte. Ltd. (UEN 201627852W).
- Is there a minimum term? Can I cancel?
- No minimum term: the membership is monthly, and you can cancel at any time from your Overseas Partner page. It runs to the end of the month you have paid for, and your page then comes off FNB.
- We already have a distributor in Singapore. Do we need this?
- No. List free as a brand on your distributor’s page instead: ask them to add you under “Brands we represent”, or apply and name them. Buyers here then order through them.
- Will FNB publish our prices?
- No. Your prices stay private unless you choose otherwise, and the badge buys no place in a search you do not match.
- Do I need to be Verified too?
- No. FNB Verified is for companies registered in Singapore. The badge you carry is the FNB Overseas Partner badge, and the checks on this page are what it stands for.
Apply
List your company, choose the country it is registered in, and tell us whether a company in Singapore represents you. Through a Singapore representative, listing is free. Through the programme, your application reaches us once you have paid the first month (S$199), and a person then checks your company and tells you what we need.
List your companyQuestions first? Write to hello@fnb.com.sg.