A buying desk in Guangzhou · serving Latin America

A buyer on the ground, before a dollar leaves for China.

Amity is your in-house procurement team in Guangzhou. We find the right factory, negotiate in Mandarin, inspect every order and ship to your port — billed only by your side.

Start a sourcing brief See how we work

No factory commissions 12 years on the ground Trilingual desk

An Amity buyer reviews finished goods on a tablet on a factory floor in Guangzhou, the production line running behind

240factories on file

Live deskToday

Foshan · wall panelsFinal inspection · 100% Released

Yangzhou · copper busbarsMid-production · 70% On track

CIF Callao · mixed loadBooking · ETA 31 d Booked

Buyers shipping into

ArgentinaChileColombiaMéxicoPerúUruguayEcuador

Why this exists

Buying in China at a distance is a leap of faith.

Wrong references, samples that don’t match production, freight booked too late, and "free advice" from forwarders that the buyer pays for in the end. We built the opposite.

Mismatched samples

The reference panel is perfect; the production batch is not. You find out when the container lands.

Hidden commissions

“Free” sourcing help, paid by a factory kickback baked into your unit price — so the advice is never on your side.

Late freight

Booking left too late, missed cargo-ready dates, demurrage. The paperwork is treated as an afterthought.

No one on the floor

Photos from the factory are not an inspection. Without a buyer at the line, you are trusting a stranger.

How we earn our fee

Four services, one engagement

Take the one you need today; add the others as you scale. We bill by the hour or by the shipment — never as a commission from the factory.

Sourcing & supplier search

Five to eight candidate factories per brief across Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu — visited, photographed and scored. You get a shortlist of three, trade-offs spelled out.

Full services breakdown

Negotiation in Mandarin

Quote, counter, MOQ break, payment terms, packaging and Incoterms — settled face to face by a buyer who speaks the language and reads the contract.

Full services breakdown

Pre-shipment inspection

Every order, every container. We open boxes at random, run the unit, measure against the PI and stop payment if anything is off. A photo report before release.

Full services breakdown

Freight to your port

Consolidation, booking, documentation and customs handoff on FOB, CIF or DDP. One invoice, one team, ports across Latin America.

Full services breakdown

The desk in numbers

12yr

sourcing across Guangdong and Zhejiang

240+

factories audited and on file

core categories we negotiate monthly

Latin American markets shipped into

How it goes

A typical engagement, week by week

No two briefs are identical, but the rhythm is. Most cases close between five and twelve weeks from sign-off.

1Week 0–1

Brief & feasibility

A 30-minute call, three pages of brief. We reply: yes / not yet / no, with reasons. No fee until you say go.

2Week 1–3

Factory map & shortlist

We visit five to eight factories, photograph the floor and score them on a shared rubric. You get three options.

3Week 3–5

Samples & negotiation

Reference samples on your desk in 10 days; PI and contract redlined; deposit terms set. Negotiation is face to face.

4Week 5–10

Production & inspection

We walk the line at 30%, 70% and 100%. Random sampling, AQL 2.5, photo report before payment release.

5Week 10–12

Freight & documents

Consolidation, booking, invoice, packing list, B/L, certificate of origin. Clean handoff to your customs broker.

See the full process

What we buy most

Four categories where our network runs deep

A focused buy desk beats a generalist. These are the goods we negotiate every month — your brief is faster, cheaper and safer inside them.

Finished copper goods — pipes, busbars and flat profiles on a workbench

Category 01

Copper goods for construction & industry

Pipes, busbars, grounding plates and sheet. Mills in Yangzhou and Foshan, IEC and ASTM certified.

Decorative and technical wall panels standing in a showroom

Category 02

Wall panels — decorative & technical

PVC stone-look, WPC slatted acoustic, aluminium veneer and fluted MDF. MOQ from one 20′ container.

Office and residential furniture in a contemporary showroom

Category 03

Furniture — office & residential

Knock-down desks, BIFMA-tested chairs, upholstered sofas and storage. Foshan and Dongguan workshops.

Category 04

Self-adhesive vinyl flooring

LVT and SPC click planks, peel-and-stick rolls and herringbone. CE, FloorScore and CARB P2.

See category briefs

Receipts

Recent cases, in our clients’ words

Buenos Aires · Copper goods · 2025

“Three quotes, three pages each, in 11 days. We closed 14% under our previous mill price and the first container arrived clean.”

Distribuidora IguazúPurchasing manager

Santiago · Wall panels · 2025

“We had been burned twice by mismatched samples. Amity sent a 42-photo QC report before the wire — the panels matched.”

Vistalina DecoraciónFounder

Lima · Office furniture · 2024

“They told us the first factory was wrong for our brief. The one they picked instead is now our default supplier.”

Oficinas AndinasOperations director

All case studies

Send a brief. This week we’ll tell you whether China is worth the trip.

Three lines of context: what you import, where it ships, what last quarter cost you. We answer with a feasibility note within two business days.