Everything you need to know before the goods ship. And the forms to write it on.
Every piece starts from a primary source and links to the actual document, never to the organisation's homepage: an obligation links to the text that imposes it, a figure to the study that measures it. Where a source doesn't stand up, the figure isn't published and the page says why. Thirty-one pieces come with a template to fill in, in Word, Excel or PDF, with no form to get through and no email address required.
One piece covers the whole journey: the eight steps between an enquiry from a foreign buyer and the goods shipping. The other forty-two each go deeper into one step.
Seven pages don't explain a document, they give it to you. These are the forms to fill in, in Word, Excel and PDF, with the fields already set up. Direct links, with no form to get through and no email address required.
The spec sheet template: the sheet itself, not an explanation of it
If you're looking for a template, you already know what to write: you just need the form. Four free files, Word and PDF, in Italian and English, no email address required. Twelve fields come from the mandatory particulars in Article 9 of the EU regulation, the rest from what buyers ask for to do their own sums.
Reg. (EU) 1169/2011, Arts. 8 and 9 · SACE, 57% of small manufacturers export
Export packing list: the template to fill in
The blank form in four files, Excel and PDF, Italian and English, no email address required. The four details that make it a document according to the Turin Chamber of Commerce, how it differs from the Italian delivery note (the DDT, which comes from an Italian tax rule, Presidential Decree 472/1996), and the description field, which is the one that gets shipments held.
Turin Chamber of Commerce, the packing list · DPR 472/1996 · FedEx, customs documents
Shipping documents: three forms, one set of goods
The export invoice, the packing list and the proof of origin are filled in by different people copying from different sources, but the person checking them reads them side by side. When the same goods are described three different ways, the quickest thing for them to do is stop and ask. The single master product line that prevents the hold, and the €6,000 threshold for the EUR.1.
Turin Chamber of Commerce · Italian Customs Agency, €6,000 threshold
The export price list: EXW, FOB and MOQ explained for producers
A price without an Incoterm isn't a price. The buyer sets it next to one that includes freight and duties, and you look more expensive without knowing it. The five delivery terms a small producer actually comes across, the minimum order worked out from the pallet, and the six things a price list needs so buyers can compare it.
ICC Academy, official text on Incoterms · no tax guidance
What your first export order really costs
Chamber of Commerce documents cost a few tens of euros, and they're not what sinks the margin. What sinks it is the hours nobody bills for, the changes the market requires and the date the money actually arrives. The four-line method for deciding before you say yes, and why there's no honest single figure.
Lecce Chamber of Commerce, official fees · Intrum, European Payment Report 2025
Health certificate and free sale: the lead times don't shrink
Buyers ask for them in the same breath, but they're two documents from two different bodies, each with its own procedure and timescale. And one unforgiving rule: no certificate can be issued once the goods have left. Ask about documents on day one of the negotiation, not in the week you load the truck.
Ministry of Health · ULSS 2 Marca Trevigiana · Turin and Lecce Chambers of Commerce
Sending food samples abroad: documents, costs, mistakes
Three free jars sent outside the EU travel as a full customs shipment, with a pro forma invoice, a declared value and proof of exit to keep on file. The four lines of the bill nobody adds up, the four questions to ask before you pack the box, and a six-column log.
Turin Chamber of Commerce, free samples · Lecce Chamber of Commerce fees
The negotiation, from first email to order. Who's worth calling back, what to reply, how to build a price the buyer can compare, and what the first order really costs once you count the hours as well.
Replying to an email from a foreign importer
Three days of silence and a catalogue fired straight back lose the same enquiry, for the same reason: neither asks a question. The four jobs of a first reply, why the price list shouldn't go out straight away, and two templates in English to adapt.
InsideSales.com/MIT study · CSA Research, 8,709 respondents
Serious buyer or time-waster: the signs to check before you spend
A foreign enquiry costs you a spec sheet to translate, samples with their customs paperwork and three weeks of emails, and you pay for all of it before you know who's on the other end. Four ten-minute checks, the five signs that matter, and the three questions to send before the price list, with the wording in English.
SACE · Italian SMEs and the export test
The spec sheet in English: the fields buyers actually ask for
Three different people read it, each looking for something different. The section that's almost always missing is logistics, and without those numbers the buyer can't work out freight, so they don't decide. Every field explained, the English template to copy, and the five mistakes that kill an enquiry without anyone telling you why.
Reg. (EU) 1169/2011, Annex II and Articles 15 and 30
Incoterms: who pays for what, and who answers to customs
One table, one row per term: who pays the main carriage, who clears export customs, who clears import customs, who pays the duties, where the risk passes. Why promising DDP when you can't act as declarant in the destination country is a promise you can't keep, and what really happens when the invoice has no Incoterm.
ICC, Incoterms® 2020 rules · ICC Academy, EXW or FCA · Union Customs Code, Art. 5
The cost of answering enquiries by hand: the six lines of the bill
The hours spent answering enquiries sit inside a salary you pay anyway, so the cost never gets its own line and feels free. This piece doesn't tell you what it costs you: it gives you the method to work it out with your own three numbers, and the two cases where the answer is to do nothing.
Sibill and Astraricerche, 500 SMEs · Intrum EPR 2025 · CSA Research
Private label: the questions to ask before you say yes
It looks like a big order, and it moves far more than the price: responsibility for what's on the label, dedicated costs, storage, and a share of your capacity that makes saying no impossible. The eight points to agree in writing, and the three cases where the deal really does make sense.
Reg. (EU) 1169/2011, Art. 8 · no margin statistics: the source doesn't stand up
After the trade fair: what to do with the enquiries you collected
Follow-up doesn't fail out of laziness. The context gets lost at the stand, not at the desk, and with nothing but a business card all you can write is a generic message. The thirty-second note that saves the contact, the three groups to sort them into when you get back, and two templates in English.
No borrowed statistics: the 80% figure going around doesn't exist
The distributor who stops reordering: nobody will come and tell you
It's the only export loss that shows up as an absence, and absences don't appear on any list. A single number makes it visible, takes an afternoon with a spreadsheet to work out, and tells you which customer to call today. Plus the three real reasons a reorder gets skipped, and the message that reopens the conversation.
No borrowed statistics: the number that counts is yours
Which form you need, who issues it and how much notice they need. Almost every customs hold starts with a description of the goods that doesn't match from one document to the next, and the issuing bodies' lead times don't shrink.
The EX-1 export declaration: who files it, and the proof to keep
The form the forwarder sends at release proves the goods have been released, which is one step short of what you need. Proof of exit comes later, as the exit-confirmed message. The goods have ninety days to leave, and if something gets stuck, no email arrives.
Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, customs procedures · MRN tracking
EUR.1 or certificate of origin: two different documents, not two names for one
The buyer writes “send me the certificate of origin” and the forwarder replies “you need an EUR.1”. They're both right, and they're talking about two different documents. Preferential and non-preferential origin, two issuing bodies, two uses, the €6,000 threshold, and why there's no EUR.1 for the United Kingdom.
Turin Chamber of Commerce · Italian Customs Agency · GOV.UK, REX threshold · Lecce Chamber of Commerce, fees
Approved exporter or REX: the sums that decide it
You apply for the status so you can stop applying for a document: an origin declaration on the invoice carries the same legal weight as an EUR.1. Below €6,000 you need neither, and it's the threshold that decides, not your turnover. The four-line calculation with your own numbers, the three requirements, and South Korea, where the status is the only route.
Italian Customs Agency, approved exporter and the REX system · EU-Korea agreement
The health certificate: how to apply, and what applying late costs
Everyone explains what it is, almost nobody explains how to apply. Which ASL (the local health authority), how many days' notice (three, five, or urgent within 24 hours, depending on the authority), what to attach and what it costs: it's charged by the hour, and the decree adds a 30 per cent surcharge for requests made less than twenty-four hours ahead.
Legislative Decree 32/2021, Arts. 8 and 10 · fees and notice periods published by three different ASLs
Food export labelling, country by country
Inside the EU the language changes. Outside it, the list changes too: nine allergens recognised by the FDA against the EU's fourteen, and a different way of declaring them. Germany, France and the United States one at a time, and why you check before you print the batch, not after.
Reg. (EU) 1169/2011, Arts. 13-15-21 · FDA · German packaging register
Import export licence: what you actually need, in order
Italy has no application form for an import export licence. There are four separate things, with different bodies and timescales, and one of them is free: on 23 July 2025 Italian Customs published a warning about websites that charge for EORI registration. What costs you is the order you apply in, because registrations in the destination country take months.
Italian Customs Agency, EORI notice of 23 July 2025 · Ministry of Health · Lecce Chamber of Commerce
Some products have rules all of their own that a general food export guide doesn't cover: wine because it's under excise control, olive oil because it has the strictest labelling rules the EU has ever written.
Exporting wine: which document, who issues it, where
In Italy the excise duty on wine is zero, but the obligations still apply in full: a tax warehouse, an excise number and the document that travels with the goods. On export that document can also serve as a certificate of origin, vintage and grape variety, and the EU label follows the wine outside the Union too, nutrition declaration included.
ADM, rates updated to 19 March 2026 · Reg. (EU) 2018/273 · Reg. (EU) 1308/2013, Art. 119 · TTB
Exporting olive oil: where to start, seven markets
You start with three things, not with a country: an EORI number, a spec sheet in English and a label that meets the EU olive oil regulation. Containers of five litres or less, place of origin mandatory, and the acidity trap: put acidity on the label and you also have to state peroxides, waxes and UV absorbance.
Reg. (EU) 2022/2104 and 2022/2105 · FDA, food imports · Lecce Chamber of Commerce, fees
Twelve pages, one for each product and country, and each comes with an Excel sheet to download. Every rule links to the text that imposes it: the US Code of Federal Regulations, the Japanese tariff read line by line, and guidance from the Swiss, British, Canadian, Australian and Brazilian authorities.
Exporting wine to the US: COLA, FDA and the importer
The TTB looks at the label, the FDA looks at the winery. An importer with the federal permit, a COLA before you print, the winery registered with the FDA through a US agent, and the registration renewal that opens on 1 October in even-numbered years. With a sheet that works out the prior notice deadlines.
27 CFR 1.20 and 4.40 · 21 CFR 1.227, 1.230, 1.241, 1.279, 1.501 · TTB
Exporting olive oil to the US: FDA, FSVP and the label
Two requirements wine doesn't have: the foreign supplier verification programme the importer must keep on your mill, and the Nutrition Facts panel. The sheet tells you whether you qualify for the exemption below 100,000 units sold in the United States, and works out the prior notice deadlines.
21 CFR 1.501 and 1.502 · 21 CFR 101.9 · 21 CFR 1.279
Exporting wine to China: the Chinese label and the key dates
The Chinese back label, line by line: Chinese characters, alcohol in %vol, the mandatory alcohol warning, the registered importer. From 16 March 2027 GB 7718-2025 applies, and it requires the producer's registration number on the label.
GB 2758-2012 · GB 7718-2011 and GB 7718-2025 · NHC
Exporting wine to Canada: liquor boards, labels, bottle sizes
In Canada the provincial liquor board buys the wine, before any distributor does. The label must be in English and French, and only twelve bottle sizes are allowed: the sheet checks whether yours is one of them.
Justice Laws, IILA and SFCR · CFIA, alcoholic beverages
Exporting olive oil to Canada: extra virgin and the label
The CFIA tests olive oil for authenticity, and extra virgin has to stay extra virgin until its best-before date, not just when it's bottled. The sheet works out how many months of shelf life the batch has left when it lands.
CFIA, notice of 24 April 2025 · CFIA, fats and oils
Exporting wine to Japan: zero duty and liquor tax
Under the EU-Japan agreement the duty on wine is zero, as long as the proof of origin travels with the goods. Without it, you pay 15% or 125 yen per litre. The liquor tax of 100 yen per litre applies either way, and the sheet runs the numbers on a shipment.
Japanese customs tariff as of 1 April 2026 · Japan Customs, FAQ 3105
Exporting olive oil to Japan: zero duty and the label
Japan charges no duty on olive oil to anyone. What matters is the Japanese label, with five nutrition values, and the food import notification for every shipment, both of which fall to the importer.
Japanese customs tariff, chapter 15 · MHLW, Art. 27 · Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Exporting wine to Switzerland: quota, GEB and VAT
Wine enters Switzerland under a quota of 1.7 million hectolitres a year, and from 20 kg gross, about 17 bottles, the importer needs a GEB licence. VAT is 8.1%, and the sheet works out the weight and the tax.
Federal Office for Agriculture · Federal Tax Administration
Exporting olive oil to Switzerland: GEB, levy and VAT
In Switzerland olive oil is part of a compulsory national stockpile: above 20 kg the importer needs a réservesuisse licence and pays a levy on every kg. VAT is at the reduced rate of 2.6%, and the sheet does the sums.
réservesuisse, GEB guide from 1 October 2025 · FTA
Exporting wine to the UK: labelling and alcohol duty
Since Brexit the VI-1 is no longer needed, but the label rules differ between England and Scotland and duty is charged on the alcohol: £30.62 per litre of pure alcohol in the wine band. The sheet works it out per bottle.
GOV.UK, importing wine · GOV.UK, Alcohol Duty rates from 1 February 2026
Exporting wine to Australia: labelling and WET
Three back-label lines the EU doesn't require: the pregnancy warning, the number of standard drinks and an alcohol statement accurate to within 1.5%. WET of 29% is added to the value, and the sheet does all three sums.
Food Standards Code, Standard 2.7.1 · FSANZ · Australian Taxation Office
Exporting wine to Brazil: certificates and the laboratory
In Brazil a wine analysis certificate only counts if it comes from a laboratory registered in SISCOLE. Plus the importer on SIPEAGRO, the certificate of origin and an “Apto” inspection result: the agriculture ministry's document checklist.
MAPA, updated 10 March 2026 · IN 39/2017, Annex XLI
Six markets, and for each one the thing that really changes: who needs the licence, how many languages the label must be in, what has to be registered before you sell. The final list is always set by the destination country.
Exporting to Switzerland: an hour's drive away, and a different continent in practice
It borders Italy but it's still a third country, with real customs. Duty is charged in francs per 100 kg of gross weight, packaging included, so glass jars pay more than pouches. Import VAT on food is 2.6%, and the label can stay in Italian, because Italian is one of Switzerland's official languages.
FSVO · Federal Office for Customs · Federal Tax Administration · Foodstuffs Ordinance Art. 36
Exporting to the United Kingdom: the costliest rule is on the label
Everyone talks about customs, but the thing that changes the bill is one line of address: since 1 January 2024, prepacked food sold in Great Britain has needed a UK address, which means your importer's. On top of that, the safety and security declaration since 31 January 2025 and IPAFFS pre-notification one working day ahead.
GOV.UK, four pages, each with its stated last-updated date
Exporting to Canada: the licence is theirs, the paperwork behind it is yours
Nobody will ask you for a licence. They'll ask you to back up the importer's, whose preventive control plan has to verify its foreign suppliers. That's where the mountain of paperwork in a Canadian deal comes from. Plus the mandatory bilingual label, and the CETA origin declaration with your REX number above €6,000.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency, two guides · Italian Customs Agency, CETA
Exporting to China: price isn't the barrier
In almost every market, compliance comes after the negotiation. Here it's the other way round: without a registered facility there's no shipment to prepare. From 1 June 2026 Decree 280 applies, replacing Decree 248 of 2021. This page is short on purpose: on this subject, a detailed list that's out of date does more harm than a pointer to the official portal.
CIFER portal · regulatory analysis; the Chinese customs website wouldn't load, and we say so
Exporting to Brazil: first find out who regulates your product
Two authorities and two routes, split by what the product is made of rather than by trade category: animal origin goes to the Ministry of Agriculture, everything else to the health agency. Five conditions, all required, from Article 486 of Decree 9,013/2017, and a label that since 9 October 2022 has carried nutrition information on the front of the pack.
Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Art. 486 · ANVISA, rotulagem
Exporting to Dubai: the label is registered before you sell
Compliance doesn't start at the border, it starts earlier: the product has to be registered in the ZAD system before it goes on sale, and no food enters the country for the first time without the federal ministry's approval. The surprise is that even a change to the recipe or the artwork starts the process again.
Official UAE government portal · Lecce Chamber of Commerce, legalisation
What applies to an SME that uses AI tools, from when, and with what consequences. Every obligation links to the article that imposes it, and the dates reflect the latest postponements.
The AI Act already applies. The part that affects you is smaller than it looks.
The obligations it places on a business that uses AI: which ones apply to you, from when, and the four things to sort out.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Arts. 4 and 50
Who the AI Act applies to, and in what role
You don't choose your role, the facts decide it. And one article turns a business from deployer into provider without anyone signing anything: all it takes is putting your own brand on a system, or using a general-purpose tool for a new purpose.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Arts. 2, 3, 16, 25 and 26
The AI Act: every deadline, updated for the July 2026 postponement
On 24 July 2026 the timetable was rewritten, and the high-risk dates moved to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028. But the delay covers exactly the part a small business doesn't use, while the part that does affect it already applies.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Arts. 111 and 113 / Reg. (EU) 2026/1744
The AI Act risk levels, and the point where an SME gets caught
The coloured pyramid isn't in the regulation, and the classification follows how a tool is used, not the tool itself. Point 4 of Annex III puts recruitment among high-risk uses: buying something that screens CVs is enough.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Arts. 5, 6 and Annex III
AI training is mandatory, and it kicked in before the obligation everyone's watching
Article 4 has applied since 2 February 2025, eighteen months before Article 50. You don't need a certified course: the European Commission says an internal record of what you've done is enough.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Art. 4 / European Commission, AI Literacy Q&A
AI Act penalties: the figures going around are the maximums
Thirty-five million is a theoretical ceiling, tied to prohibited practices. For SMEs, Article 99(6) turns the rule around: the fine is capped at the lower of the fixed amount and the percentage, not the higher.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Arts. 99, 100 and 101 / GDPR, Art. 83
The AI Act and the GDPR: the new one hasn't replaced the old one
Article 2 states that the Act is without prejudice to the GDPR, so the two apply side by side. For an SME, the AI Act isn't enforced by the Garante, Italy's data protection authority, but by ACN. And there are two impact assessments, not one.
Reg. (EU) 2024/1689, Arts. 2, 26, 27 and 74 / GDPR, Arts. 28 and 35
Italy's AI law: five things the EU regulation doesn't say
In force since 10 October 2025. It covers employment, the professions, children's data and copyright (the law now says “works of human creativity”), and it creates a new criminal offence.
Law no. 132 of 23 September 2025, Arts. 4, 11, 13, 20, 24, 25 and 26
Our own measurements: on exporters' websites, and on ours, to see how a buyer, a search engine and an AI assistant read them. The method, the dates and any corrections are in each piece.
Study: 121 food producer websites, SEO and AI
Itria AI study of 249 websites in the ICE directory: 19 of 121 food producers offer a spec sheet, and all 121 are open to Google and AI.
ICE directory · 249 websites read · data CC BY 4.0
Soft 404s on Cloudflare Pages: five phantom URLs
Without a 404.html, Cloudflare Pages returns 200 for everything: five itria.io URLs that never existed were getting impressions in position 1. The case, and how to check yours.
Google Search Console · Cloudflare
The email address AI assistants can't see
Cloudflare's obfuscation hides your email address from AI assistants, which don't run JavaScript. The itria.io case and a five-minute check.
Cloudflare · Vercel, 1.3 billion requests
Brave and Claude: from one page of the site to five
Claude's web search could see just one page of itria.io. After we asked Brave to recrawl seven, it could see five. Before and after, with the limits of the data.
Anthropic Trust Center · our own measurements
For anyone thinking about working with someone on AI: what to ask before you sign, what it costs on the market, and where we work from.
AI agency for SMEs: 9 questions before you sign
Data, fees, how results are measured, the AI Act and the GDPR: nine questions to ask an AI agency before you sign, and the answer you should get to each.
The questions to ask, with no rankings and no names
What an AI system costs an SME: three price bands
Three price bands from the public price lists of five Italian providers, checked again in September 2026: off-the-shelf tools, tailored systems, agents. Real figures, no names.
Five market price lists · Istat
AI agency in Turin
Tailored AI systems for SMEs, from Turin and remotely: we start where the business is losing time or revenue. First step: 15 minutes.
Bank of Italy, the economy of Piedmont
AI agency in Puglia
Itria is based in Crispiano (TA) and builds tailored AI systems for SMEs, working remotely. The figures on Puglia, and the first step.
Bank of Italy, the economy of Puglia
Four pieces each take a published statistic and do three things: explain what it really measures, what it means for an Italian business, and where the figure mustn't be stretched. The source is always the original study, never a second-hand quote.
Which process to automate first: a method, not a list of tools
A list of tools answers the wrong question, and it goes out of date. Here's the method instead: map what actually happens in a week, give every row four scores (frequency, repetitiveness, cost of a mistake, who owns the data), take a baseline measurement by hand, and track the correction rate afterwards.
Sibill · Astraricerche, 500 SMEs · OECD; no promised savings percentage
81% of Italian SMEs use AI. One in four has built it in.
There are fifty-six percentage points between those two numbers, and in that gap sit most of the businesses that have already paid for AI without getting anything back yet. Cost, by the way, is named as the main barrier by just 6.6%.
Sibill · Astraricerche, 500 SMEs / OECD, more than 5,000 SMEs in 7 countries
Five minutes. Then the enquiry belongs to someone else.
Almost every business thinks it replies quickly, and almost none has ever measured it. What the figure on first replies really says, why the delay isn't about people being slow, and how to get your own baseline in an afternoon.
InsideSales.com/MIT study, 2007
80% of customer service will be automated. And 64% of customers would rather it wasn't.
Two forecasts from the same research firm that seem to contradict each other and don't. The whole of the first one hangs on the word “common”, and almost every quote leaves it out.
Gartner, press release of 5 March 2025
The statistics doing the rounds on automation are often quoted by people who never opened the research. Here, every figure links to the document it comes from, and when the source doesn't stand up, the figure doesn't get published. That's why there are so few of these articles.
If a term isn't clear.
The glossary has 131 entries covering AI, automation, data and compliance, defined in Italian. Where a term has a practical consequence, the entry spells it out.