Credit Information

&
International Debt Collection

“Know your business partner”

 Who we are

• Credit information
• International debt collection
• Financial services
• Floriculture industry specialists
• 180+ clients in Holland, Ecuador, Colombia and Kenya
News: this is reality
 Flower industry

Flower farms are an easy victim for non-paying clients!

à No research to a new client before business is started à you don’t know your client

à Flower exporters easily give a lot of credit

à Flowers have zero value after two weeks à you can’t recover the delivered products

à Buyers are located in foreign countries all over the world and not easy to visit

à Flower holidays: high demand for flowers and customers need extra credit

à Strong shift: non-paying debtors bought flowers in Holland à now buy from South
America
 Know your business partner
Website mentions:

“We are one of the biggest flower wholesalers in Bucharest, Romania.”

“We buy directly from Ecuador, Colombia and Holland.”
“Best quality for the best price.”

Application form:

• Annual turnover: $3 million

• Years in business: 7
• References of other farms
• Requested credit limit: $50,000

But when you do the research……..

Know your business partner

Reality:

• Registered 1,5 years ago

• Address is an apartment
• No office
• Turnover 2018: $29.000
• 1 employee
• Creditworthy: $0 !
Know your business partner

Biggest group of scammers in Spain

• We know them since 2009

• Buy flowers in Ecuador and Colombia
• Start a new business every 6 months
• Leave almost every supplier with debts!
• Use logos of well-known farms as reference

Don’t do business based on a good-looking

website, possible reference or ‘good feeling’
 Know your business partner

Qatar scam

• International consultant for the Qatar

2022 FIFA World Cup
• Government of Qatar approved a
massive procurement of flowers
• Looking for a capable supplier of
flowers
• Price offer is requested for a large order
• Many documents and letters
• After several emails: tender fee
payment requested to continue
 Know your business partner
Real website Fake website
 Prevent payment problems

• Use sales contracts!

• Agree on payment terms
• Always ask for a registration number à every company has one!
• Ask for references
• Don’t provide big credit limits to everybody à a farm is not a bank
• Do research on the debtor à Credit insurance, credit information, …
• Stop sending flowers if the debtor is late with payments or over the agreed terms
• Know about statutes of limitations per country
 Credit information
General credit
information
provider
We visit flower markets
 AgroCheck Database

• Database: 33.000 companies

• Warning list: 2.400 companies
• Daily updated
• Connects owners, addresses,
phone numbers, …
• Monthly newsletters
• Whatsapp group apps
 How it works
Potential customer
You are contacted by a potential customer. They
1 want to buy your flowers.

Check Companies
AgroCheck members login to the online database and
2 request information. If AgroCheck doesn’t know the
company, we can do a new research and send a credit
report with all information and credit advice.

Do business
3 With an AgroCheck credit report, you know who your
new customer is and how their financial position is. If
this report is positive, you can decide to do
business!
 Russia

• Financial problems
• Difficulties with payments to
Ecuador
• Several entities are used from
different countries. Who are
you actually doing business
with?
• Offshore companies à bad
intentions on forehand?!
• Use sales contracts à
necessary for legal cases
 Romania

• Several criminal groups

buy flowers from
Ecuador and Colombia
at the moment
• Start a new business
every few months
• Almost impossible to
collect the debts
• Annual figures are not
always correct
 Middle East

• Market is growing, more

flowers are imported
from Ecuador directly
• A lot of financial
problems. ‘The city of
Gold’ (Dubai) is not
always what it seems
• In general doing
business in Arab
countries can be
complicated due to other
local legal laws
• Use sales contracts à
necessary for legal cases
 U.S.A.

• Biggest market
• Database growing
extremely quick in USA
à 130+ companies
added to the Warning list
last year
• Share your negative
experiences
• 2019: several big
wholesalers went
bankrupt
• Miami: many brokers
with moderate reputation
Up-to-date credit report

• Company details
• Registration numbers
• Ownership
• Company size
• Annual results (if available)
• Comment + advice
• Credit limit advice

Costs

• $35 for companies in Europe

• $45 for companies outside Europe
 Stages of overdue invoices

Payment Stage 1 – 30 Stage 31 to 60 Stage 60+ days Stage No result

1 2 3 4
term 0-30 days overdue days overdue overdue (120-180
days days)

§ Maximum term § +31 days: § Consider to § In this stage,

§ +3 days: email the debt
of 30 days director calls hire a
§ +10 days: call collection collectors were
§ Send client all § +38 days:
payment info § +15 days: call agency or unable to
official letter to
and email lawyer collect
§ Sales contract debtor
§ +25 days: call § Contact lawyer
§ Keep an eye and email § +45 days:
on the reminder call § Personal visit
payment terms § +52 days: last
§ With email reminder with Or:
there is proof warning that close the case
§ Stop collection and take your
shipments agency will be loss
§ Friendly involved
process is over
 Stages of overdue invoices
Probability of collection
120%

100%
100%

• Don’t wait too long!

80%
• 30 days payment terms 75%

• It is worth it to start a 60% 55%

collection procedure or 40%

40%
35%
legal case instead of losing
it all 20%
15%

0%
Invoice due date 90 days late 180 days late 270 days late 1 year late 2 years late

Probability of collection
 Statute of limitations

* Depends on the state and type of debt.

 AgroCheck Collections

§ Overdue payments?
§ No success in collection?
§ Debtor has disappeared?
§ Issues about deliveries?

à AgroCheck Collections can help

ü We know the market

ü We do research on your debtor
ü We collect anywhere in the world
ü No Cure = No Pay, only a fixed administration fee
ü No unexpected costs à we communicate before we take action
 Costs
AgroCheck database:

AgroCheck Standard membership AgroCheck Premium membership AgroCheck Plus membership

Access to the database Access to the database Access to the database
2 up-to-date credit reports 10 up-to-date credit reports 20 up-to-date credit reports
$450 per year $695 per year $895 per year

Debt collections:

AgroCheck members Non AgroCheck members

$140 file costs $240 file costs
15% commission fees (< 365 days old) 17,5% commission fees (< 365 days old)
17,5% commission fees (> 365 days old) 20% commission fees (> 365 days old)