The terms on which we are prepared to trade.

We are prepared to trade only as an agent, meaning we introduce your product to a buyer and you sell it to them. We never buy your produce and we never resell it. We do not take title to your goods at any point, we hold no stock, and we never act as both agent and merchant in the same arrangement.

You remain the seller and the exporter of record. You set every price, you approve every order, and the buyer pays you directly. No money from a buyer passes through us at any stage.

We have no delivery requirements because produce is never delivered to us. We have no premises for it, no storage and no custody of it at any time. Goods move from you to your buyer, and the freight arrangement is between you, your buyer and the forwarder.

We set no quality requirements of our own and impose none on you. Quality is whatever you and your buyer agree, against your own product specifications. We do not use the FreshSpecs Produce Specifications unless you and your buyer choose to.

There are no circumstances in which we can reject your produce, because nothing is ever delivered to us to accept or reject. If a buyer rejects a consignment, that is a matter between you and the buyer under your own sale terms. We will hand over any correspondence and records we hold, on request, at no charge, but the decision is not ours to make and the consequence does not fall on us.

We do not pool your produce with anyone else's, ever.

The Code asks an agent to state the period within which it will pay a grower the proceeds of a sale. For us there is no such period, because there are no proceeds to pass on. Your buyer pays you directly and in full, on the payment terms you set with them. We invoice you separately for our commission afterwards.

We would rather say that plainly than invent a payment period for money that never reaches us.

We hold no insurance over your produce and no insurable interest in it, because we never have custody or control of it. You insure your own goods as you see fit, and freight insurance is arranged in your name with your forwarder. If a consignment is lost or damaged in transit, the claim is yours and the policy is yours.

Charged on a percentage basis: 10% of the ex works price the producer sets. It comes out of that price and is never added on top for the buyer. There are no fees, no retainers, no listing charges, no marketing contributions and no extra costs of any kind. The full workings, with a worked example, are on the commission and terms page.

Payment of commission is contingent, and here is the event it depends on. Commission is earned when an order actually ships, and becomes payable only once you have been paid for it in cleared funds. If nothing ships, nothing is owed. If a buyer never pays you, nothing is owed. There is no minimum, no floor and no charge for effort that did not result in a shipment you were paid for.

Commission is calculated on the ex works value of the goods only. Freight, insurance, duties, bank charges and inspection fees are excluded.

We are not prepared to pursue a buyer's debt to you. The contract of sale is between you and your buyer, we are not a party to it, and we hold no money of yours to set anything against. Buyer credit risk stays with you, and you may manage it through your payment terms or through trade credit insurance in your own name.

We give no del credere guarantee, meaning we do not guarantee that a buyer will pay. What we will do, at no charge and on request, is hand over every piece of correspondence, contact detail and record we hold that might help you recover it.

We will not offer, promise, agree or imply to any buyer that they have exclusive rights to your goods in any market, territory or channel, and we will not hold ourselves out as able to grant them. If a buyer asks for exclusivity, or for a distribution or agency appointment, we tell you before we answer, and the decision is yours alone, because you are the seller.

We will also tell you what such an arrangement can mean, rather than let you find out afterwards. A commercial agency registered in the United Arab Emirates, for example, is exclusive by operation of law and can take about a year to bring to an end. That is the kind of thing that is easy to agree to in a good meeting and very hard to undo.

This is not the same as our commission on a buyer we introduced. That rewards an introduction both of us have recorded in writing. It gives nobody any territory, and it does not stop you selling to whoever you like.

Ask in writing and we will show you our records about your own goods, for any period of up to twelve months before you ask. You can send someone in your place by appointing them in writing, provided they do not have a conflict of interest. The one thing we will not hand over in an inspection is the names and contact details of buyers, which is the whole substance of what an introduction is worth to us.

There is one situation where we hand over a buyer's name anyway, and it is the situation you would want us to. If a buyer owes you money and you ask us for what we hold in order to recover it, we give you the buyer's name and contact details along with everything else. We would rather you got paid than protect a relationship with someone who did not pay you.

Both of us keep our records for six years after an arrangement ends: the agreement itself, any written offer, acceptance or termination, and any report given under it, plus a written record of each other's name. That is an obligation on the producer as much as on us, so it is set out here rather than left for you to find out later.

Talk to us first, and talk to a person rather than an inbox. Andrew, Austera Global Pty Ltd trading as Southern Cross Provisions, [email protected]. Email reaches Andrew directly and he will pick up the phone with you from there.

If we cannot resolve it between us, the Horticulture Code provides a dispute resolution procedure and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman maintains a list of mediators for it. Nothing in our arrangement limits your right to use that procedure, or to complain to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Both of us are required to deal with each other in good faith and neither of us can contract out of that.

Two things about this document are unresolved and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.

The Code is built around an agent who takes delivery of produce, sells it, receives the money and pays it on. We do none of those things. Whether that makes us an agent under the Code, or an introducer sitting outside it, is a question we have put to the ACCC rather than answered ourselves. We publish this either way, because a publishing duty is not something to sit on while you wait for an answer that suits you.

The Code also covers "unprocessed" produce and never defines the word. Fresh fruit, vegetables, edible fungi, nuts and herbs are plainly inside it. Where frozen and further processed lines sit is genuinely open. This page is written to be useful either way and will be updated when there is a clear answer, with the date of the change shown below.

This document is not legal advice and is not a substitute for your own. If you are about to sign anything with us, we would rather you had someone look at it.

If we change these terms of trade we will publish the updated version here, in the same place and the same way, so that the current version is always the one at this address. Individual agreements already signed are varied only by written agreement between the two parties to them, never by us changing this page.

Version 1.0, published 3 August 2026. Drafted against the Horticulture Code of Conduct, Schedule 1 to the Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes Horticulture) Regulations 2017, compilation F2025C00177, compilation date 22 February 2025.