Sourcing Company & China Sourcing Agent in France — AFFHAN Group
Affhan has been buying out of China since 2000, and now runs seven offices — one of them in Paris. For a French buyer that means one company standing at both ends of the shipment: our people in Guangzhou choose the factory and inspect what comes off the line, and our people in Europe handle the paperwork that gets the container off the quay at Le Havre.
What a Sourcing Agent in France Actually Does
Most French importers do not have trouble finding Chinese suppliers. The trouble is knowing which of them is a factory rather than a trader, and who answers the phone when the container lands.
Finding the maker
We identify and audit the factory, negotiate in Mandarin on your behalf, and hold the pre-production sample against your specification before anything goes into production.
Covers: supplier shortlisting, price negotiation, samples, tooling
Checking it before it sails
Inspection during the run rather than after it. A fault found at forty per cent completion is a correction; the same fault found at packing is a reorder, and on a 45-day lane that is a lost quarter.
Covers: factory audit, in-line checks, pre-shipment inspection, photo and video reports
Documents and delivery
Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin where a preference applies, and the conformity file customs and the DGCCRF can ask to see.
Covers: FCL and LCL booking, consolidation, customs documentation, inland delivery
We are a sourcing company and an NVOCC, not a broker. The freight is ours to arrange rather than something we hand to a forwarder and mark up, which is why the quote covers the goods and the movement in one number instead of two that arrive a fortnight apart.
Clear once, sell into twenty-seven
The single most useful fact about importing into France is that you are importing into the European Union. Goods released into free circulation at Le Havre are in free circulation in Germany, Spain, Italy and the other twenty-three member states. You pay the Common Customs Tariff once, at the first point of entry, and the goods then move without further customs formality.
It changes which port, not which country
If you are selling across the EU, the question is not which country to import into but which port gives you the best inland leg, because the duty is identical either way. For most French buyers that answer is Le Havre. For anyone serving southern France, Italy or Spain it is often Marseille-Fos.
Two registrations make it work
An EORI number identifies you to customs across the EU — a French one is normally your SIRET prefixed with FR. And a French VAT number, because since January 2022 import VAT here is not paid at the border at all: it is reverse-charged automatically on your CA3 return, declared and deducted in the same filing. For a business reclaiming in full, that moved import VAT from a cash-flow cost to a bookkeeping entry.
Compliance is what actually stops a shipment
Duty is arithmetic. Compliance is where consignments get held, and it is where a sourcing agent earns the fee.
For most manufactured goods entering the EU, the importer — not the Chinese factory — is the economic operator responsible for conformity. If you put your name on the product, you carry the obligations of a manufacturer. That means the CE marking has to be justified by a real technical file, and the Declaration of Conformity has to exist, name the applicable directives, and be produced on request. A factory that emails you a CE logo as a JPEG has given you nothing.
Since December 2024 the General Product Safety Regulation has added a second requirement: any product sold to EU consumers needs a responsible person established in the EU, named on the product or its packaging, who can be contacted about safety. For an importer of record established in France, that is you. It is not something the factory can hold on your behalf from Guangdong.
We build the conformity file at the factory, while the goods are still on the line and a missing test report can still be obtained — rather than at the port, where it cannot.
France's own layer: AGEC, EPR and Triman
France goes further than the EU baseline, and this is the part that surprises buyers who have imported into other member states before.
Under the loi AGEC, extended producer responsibility covers far more categories in France than the packaging and electricals most people expect — furniture, textiles, toys, DIY and garden equipment, sports goods and more. If you are the first party placing those goods on the French market, you are the producer for EPR purposes. That means registering with the relevant eco-organisme, obtaining a numéro d'identifiant unique from ADEME, declaring volumes and paying the eco-contribution.
There is also the Triman logo and its sorting instructions, which must appear on in-scope products or packaging sold in France. Getting that artwork right at the factory costs nothing; getting it wrong means relabelling a container in a French warehouse.
We raise these at the quotation stage, because they change the artwork and sometimes the packaging spec — and artwork is cheap to change before a print run and expensive afterwards.
CBAM, if you import metals or cement
If what you are buying is iron, steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser or hydrogen — including many finished goods made from them, such as fixings, brackets, tooling and structural components — the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism applies to you.
The transitional phase ran on reporting alone. The definitive regime, from January 2026, attaches a cost: declarants buy CBAM certificates against the embedded emissions of what they import. The practical consequence for sourcing is that emissions data has to come from the Chinese producer, and producers vary enormously in their ability to supply it in the required form.
We ask for it during supplier selection rather than after the order is placed, because a factory that cannot produce the data is a factory that will cost you more per tonne than its quotation suggests.
Ports, lanes and how long it really takes
- Le Havre — the default. France's main deepwater container gateway on the Channel, taking mainline Asia–North Europe services directly, with rail and barge links up the Seine to the Paris basin.
- Marseille-Fos — the Mediterranean alternative, genuinely faster for the right cargo. A box routed through Suez to Fos avoids the run around Iberia and up the Channel.
- Dunkerque — worth knowing for bulk and project cargo, and for buyers whose onward distribution runs into Belgium or the Netherlands.
On timing, the honest answer is a range, and anyone quoting you a single number is quoting you a best case. Our own China to Northern Europe lane runs about 45 days port to port. That is the sailing; it does not include the factory's production time before it or customs clearance and the inland leg after it. Transhipment, blank sailings and Red Sea routing all move it, and they have moved it a great deal in recent years. We quote the range we have actually seen on the lane rather than the carrier's schedule.
Incoterms decide more than who pays the freight
The three letters on your proforma invoice decide who is the importer of record, and that decides who carries the compliance obligations described above. It is worth more attention than it usually gets.
EXW
Puts everything on you from the factory gate, including export clearance in China, which a French buyer is poorly placed to arrange. We rarely recommend it.
FOB
The common ground, and what most of our French clients use. The supplier delivers to the Chinese port and clears for export; from the rail onwards the shipment is yours, which means we can control the freight leg and you remain the importer of record in France — so the EORI, the VAT reverse charge, the conformity file and the EPR registrations sit with you, where they belong for a business selling in its own name.
DDP
Looks attractive because one number covers everything to your door, and it is occasionally the right answer for a first small order. Be careful with it. A DDP price quoted by a Chinese supplier often assumes an import route you would not choose if you saw it, and it does not relieve you of the producer obligations under AGEC if you are the one selling the goods in France.
We will tell you which of the three fits the order rather than quoting whichever is easiest to put on a page.
How an order runs, start to finish
You send a specification, a drawing, a photograph or a link to something close enough. We come back with a shortlist of factories that can actually make it, with indicative pricing at your volume and an honest note on where the price breaks — the difference between 500 and 2,000 units is often larger than buyers expect.
You pick a supplier and we take a pre-production sample. Nothing goes into production until you have held that sample. Once it does, our Guangzhou team inspects during the run rather than at the end, because a fault found at forty per cent completion is a correction and the same fault found at the packing stage is a reorder.
We consolidate, book the freight, and prepare the documents. If you are clearing in your own name we hand your broker a complete file; if you would rather we handled the European end, our Paris office does that. The goods arrive, you clear them once, and they are then free to move anywhere in the union.
Throughout, you are dealing with one company. The person who audited the factory and the person who can tell you where your container is work for the same business, which is the entire argument for using us rather than assembling a sourcing agent, an inspection firm and a forwarder yourself.
What French Buyers Actually Ask Us For
Our catalogue runs to more than a million products across five hundred-odd categories, which is a way of saying we can source most things rather than that we stock any of them. The listings demonstrate manufacturing access; they are not an inventory, which is why nothing carries a price.
What French and EU buyers come to us for most often is promotional and branded merchandise, retail packaging, homeware and kitchen goods, textiles and workwear, small electricals and accessories, store fixtures and display, and hardware and fixings. Something else in mind? Send the item over, or look through the whole catalogue.
Process of Sourcing
Enquiry
Get in touch with our team, and we can discuss your product specs, timeline and quantity.
- Submit product specifications & ideas
- Assign dedicated sourcing agent
- Identify potential target factory matches
- Confirm target order quantities & guidelines
Quote
Our team will prepare a quote for you after discussing your product specs with our network of factories.
- Request detailed quotes from verified factories
- Estimate shipping freight & port handling tariffs
- Review sample unit costs & bulk tier pricing
- Deliver structured quotation sheet to client
Confirm Order/Design
Depending on your order, it may require a custom design. Approval is required before sampling and production.
- Generate custom 2D/3D product blueprints
- Align packaging size and branded logo formats
- Verify material compliance certifications
- Obtain final design approval signature
Payment
Once you're happy with your quote and design, a deposit is made to commence your order.
- Process 30% start production deposit
- Prepare factory manufacturing contract
- Review payment terms & milestones
- Approve starting schedule with factory raw materials
Production
We monitor manufacturing schedules close-up. Production usually takes 3-5 weeks.
- Procure raw materials & check quality
- Begin molding & assembly line processes
- Conduct weekly progress checks on output speed
- Confirm initial production run schedule
Quality Control
A member of our team does a full QC inspection report to ensure the order is to spec.
- Inspect mid-production batch run quality
- Supervise final packaging & seal durability
- Issue detailed testing report with video proof
- Approve consignment ready for shipping release
Balance Payment
Once you're happy with the production results, the balance payment is required to ship your order.
- Verify final inspection report pass
- Settle 70% remaining balance payment
- Release factory cargo transfer permissions
- Issue official commercial invoice & certificate of origin
Shipping & Storage
Orders are shipped via sea or air cargo. We also have a warehouse to consolidate with any orders.
- Select sea/air cargo freight provider
- Consolidate orders at Guangzhou warehousing hub
- Prepare customs export declaration papers
- Load container & seal tracking tags
Delivery at Doorsteps
After the consignment reaches the port, we clear the goods and dispatch them to the final destination.
- Supervise arrival at destination port
- Clear local import customs duties & paperwork
- Dispatch final logistics truck routes to door
- Conduct post-delivery check with client
The Paris office
Our French office is at 14 Rue de Dunkerque, 75010 Paris, a few minutes from Gare du Nord, and you can reach it on +33 695 144 606.
It is the newest of our seven offices and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. It has no Google reviews of its own yet and no office photographs to show you. What stands behind it is the same company that has been trading since 2000.
- Buyers of ours inside China, not an introduction to somebody else's
- Conformity file built at the factory, not reconstructed at the port
- Cleared once at Le Havre or Fos, then free to move across the union
- 26 years on this route — the company has traded since 2000
Our Record on Google
The Paris office is newly established and has no reviews of its own yet. Across 144 Google reviews, AFFHAN Group averages 4.8 out of 5 — that profile belongs to the Chennai head office, which has been trading since 2000.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can buy directly, and plenty of French importers do. What you take on is supplier verification, production oversight at eight thousand kilometres, and the conformity file that customs will ask for. An agent is worth it when the order is large enough that a bad container hurts, or technical enough that “close enough” is not.
Our China to Northern Europe lane runs about 45 days port to port into Le Havre. Marseille-Fos via Suez can be shorter for the right routing. Neither figure includes production before the sailing, or clearance and the inland leg after it. Transhipment and Red Sea routing move the range, so we quote what we have seen on the lane rather than the schedule.
Le Havre for most buyers — it takes mainline Asia–North Europe services and connects up the Seine to the Paris basin. Marseille-Fos if you are distributing into the south-east, Italy or Spain. Duty is identical either way, so the inland leg usually decides it, and we will price both.
No. Since January 2022 import VAT in France is reverse-charged automatically on your CA3 return — declared and deducted in the same filing rather than paid at the frontier. For a business reclaiming in full this is a bookkeeping entry rather than a cash-flow cost. You will need a French VAT number and an EORI.
Yes. Goods released into free circulation at a French port are in free circulation throughout the customs union. You pay the Common Customs Tariff once at the point of entry, and the goods then move to any of the twenty-seven member states without further customs formality.
You are, in most cases. The importer placing goods on the EU market carries the manufacturer’s obligations, so the CE mark must be backed by a real technical file and a Declaration of Conformity you can produce on request. Since December 2024 the GPSR also requires a named responsible person established in the EU. A CE logo emailed as an image is not compliance.
It is the French sorting mark required on many products and packaging sold in France under the AGEC law, alongside registration with an eco-organisme and an ADEME identifier. Scope is broader than most buyers expect — furniture, textiles, toys, DIY and sports goods among others. We raise it at quotation, because artwork is cheap to change before a print run.
Only if you import iron, steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser or hydrogen, including many finished goods made from them. From January 2026 the definitive regime attaches a cost to embedded emissions, and the data has to come from the Chinese producer. We ask for it during supplier selection, because a factory that cannot supply it will cost you more per tonne than its quote suggests.
Affhan sourcing offices worldwide
- Chennai— Sourcing agent in Chennai
- Dubai— Sourcing company in Dubai
- London— China sourcing agent in London & the UK
- Singapore— Sourcing agent in Singapore
- Malaysia— Sourcing agent in Malaysia
- Guangzhou— Our Guangzhou sourcing office
- China— China sourcing company services
- China— Sourcing from China: a buyer's guide