What should you specify to get a firm freeze-dried longan quote in one round?
Specify ten things: grade, size and breakage tolerance, packaging, volume and call-off months, destination and Incoterm, loading, market panels, labelling route, special documents and where to send the sample. With those on the first email, a supplier can return a specification, a container plan and a sample schedule in one reply instead of five rounds of questions.
Freeze-dried longan is ripe longan (Dimocarpus longan, also called dragon eye), peeled, deseeded, frozen and dried under vacuum into crisp, ivory, hollow balls at ≤5.0% moisture and water activity ≤0.30, with nothing added. FruitBuys supplies it year-round from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. This page is the starting point for the whole purchase: it gives the checks and the RFQ, then sends each specialist on your team to the guide that covers their part in depth.
Why are buyers adding freeze-dried longan in 2026?
Three reasons keep coming up in buyer conversations.
- It is new on the shelf. Most Western shoppers know longan only as a dark, chewy, heat-dried fruit. A pale, round ball that cracks like meringue and tastes of just-peeled longan is a product their customers have not seen yet, and it suits snack, tea, dessert and confectionery lines.
- It is clean where dried longan keeps getting recalled. Sulfite recalls on dried longan recur in Singapore, the US and Hong Kong, because fumigated fruit reaches shelves with undeclared SO₂. FruitBuys longan is unsulfured, and every lot COA carries a sulfite result below 10 mg/kg.
- It enters the EU at 0% duty. Vietnamese longan with a C/O Form EUR.1 clears the EU duty-free under the EU–Vietnam trade agreement, from a country with about 80,000 ha of longan orchards (2023).
Which grade fits your channel?
Choose the grade before anything else, because it sets the carton weight, the container load and the price per kilogram.
| Your channel | Grade | Bulk carton (58 × 28 × 34 cm) | Read next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail snack pouches, gift tins, visual toppings | Whole balls, 18–25 mm | 7 kg | How to launch it under your own brand |
| Tea blends, milk-tea garnish | Whole balls or halves | 7 kg | Which longan works in a tea or bubble-tea menu |
| Granola, chocolate, bakery inclusions | Pieces | 9–10 kg | Freeze-dried vs traditional dried longan |
| Drink bases, ice cream, fillings | Powder, 100% longan, 60–80 mesh | 20 kg (4 × 5 kg) | What to specify for longan powder |
Pieces pack about 30–40% more kilograms into the same container than whole balls, so they cost less per kilogram to ship. Whole balls earn their freight on the shelf: a hollow ball carries 2.2–2.5× the apparent volume of soft-dried fruit, so a 35–50 g pouch looks as full as a 100–120 g pouch of chewy dried fruit.
Which ten checks separate a reliable supplier from a risky one?
Run these with every shortlisted supplier, including FruitBuys. A supplier who answers all ten in writing is one you can plan a year around.
| # | Check | A good answer looks like | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ingredient and sulfite | 100% longan, unsulfured; sulfite <10 mg/kg on every lot COA | Specification and lot COA |
| 2 | Moisture and water activity | Contract ≤5.0% / aw ≤0.30; release at ≤4.0% / aw ≤0.25 | Same guide |
| 3 | Fruit basis behind the price | 8–9.5 kg of whole fresh longan per kg | Fresh-to-freeze-dried ratio |
| 4 | Origin and season | Named Mekong provinces; fruit every month; call-offs scheduled | Varieties, season and Mekong supply |
| 5 | Grading | ≥85% on size; broken balls ≤10%; fines ≤3–5% in a whole-ball grade | Specification and lot COA |
| 6 | Sample-to-bulk match | One facility locked to your contract; pre-shipment sample from the packed lot; retained sample per container | How bulk matches the approved sample |
| 7 | Packing and loading | Foil bags, silica gel, no nitrogen; ~550 cartons per 20 ft in a standard dry container | Packing and container loading |
| 8 | Documents and certifications | Lot COA, C/O Form EUR.1, phytosanitary certificate with every shipment; facility certificates in the technical file | HS code, duty and documents |
| 9 | Market panels | EU multi-residue and, for EU/UK programmes, a chlorate screen, booked before the container is stuffed | Same guide |
| 10 | Label numbers | Typical values for artwork, a lot nutrition panel for the final pack | Longan calories and sugar |
Two answers deserve a second question. A specification that leaves water activity out, or sets it well above 0.30, describes soft-dried fruit or an unmeasured lot, not freeze-dried longan. A fresh-to-dry ratio of 5–6 kg usually means arils soaked in sugar syrup, and about 5.5 kg is the peeled-aril basis rather than a better yield; ask which basis the quote uses and check that the ingredient line reads “longan” only.
What does the ten-line RFQ look like?
Copy these lines into your first email. Each one removes a round of questions.
- Grade: whole balls, halves, pieces or powder.
- Size and breakage: standard whole-ball grade, or your own tolerance for broken balls and fines.
- Packaging: 1–5 kg bulk bags in 7–10 kg cartons, or retail pouch sizes (30, 50, 100, 500 g).
- Volume: trial quantity, annual estimate and the months you want call-offs.
- Destination port and Incoterm: FOB, CIF or DDP.
- Loading: floor-loaded for the most cartons, or palletised for forklift unloading.
- Market and panels: destination country and any test beyond the standard lot COA.
- Label route: your brand on retail pouches, or bulk for your own packing line.
- Special documents: for example Halal certificate copy, Arabic labelling for the UAE, FBA labels.
- Sample: delivery address and the date your QA team needs it.
How does a first order run, from sample to container?
Most buyers move through four steps.
- Development sample, 3–5 working days to dispatch. Whole balls, halves, pieces and powder can travel in one shipment, so R&D tests every format in the same week.
- Trial order of 1–2 full export cartons. Your team runs the recipe and the shelf test on commercial packing. The in-house QC log comes free; a third-party test on the trial lot is charged at lab cost and credited in full to your first container.
- Pre-shipment sample from the packed lot. 100–200 g in two sealed foil pouches, one for tasting, one sealed for your laboratory. Once approved, it is the reference for every container.
- Container contract. Production runs 20–30 days per 20 ft after deposit from a partner facility with capacity of about 100 tonnes of freeze-dried longan a year. Payment by T/T 40/60 or L/C at sight; loading at Cat Lai. Claims on packaging, appearance, breakage or water activity are raised within 14 days of devanning, lab results within 30 days, against a retained sample kept for the full shelf life.
Shelf life is 18–24 months in the unopened bulk foil bag in cool storage at ≤18 °C, RH ≤50%, and 12 months once repacked into retail pouches at ≤25 °C, RH ≤60%. The partner facility holds HACCP, ISO 22000, BRC (qualified processing facility), US FDA Facility Registration, with Halal certification available on request; copies sit in the technical file before signature.
Is freeze-dried longan the right longan for your product?
For most snack, tea, dessert and confectionery lines, yes. If your product is a dessert soup or herbal brew simmered for an hour, where the fruit is meant to turn dark and soft, traditional dried longan is the ingredient that recipe expects; FruitBuys can still help you choose between freeze-dried pieces for a lighter, unsulfured version and powder for a drink base. If you are choosing between longan and its cousins, flavour and drying behaviour are compared in longan vs lychee.
Full specifications, nutrition and import notes are on the freeze-dried longan product page, and powder buyers will find theirs on the freeze-dried longan powder product page. Both sit in the FruitBuys freeze-dried fruit range.
FAQ
What is the minimum order for freeze-dried longan?
A trial order starts at 1–2 full export cartons, about 7–14 kg of whole balls. Private label starts at 500 kg per SKU.
How much freeze-dried longan fits in a container?
About 550 cartons per 20 ft, floor-loaded: around 3,850 kg of whole balls or up to 5,500 kg of pieces.
Is freeze-dried longan available all year?
Yes. Mekong growers stagger flowering, so fresh longan is harvested every month and container programmes run on scheduled call-offs.
Does freeze-dried longan contain sulfites?
No. It is unsulfured, and every lot COA shows a sulfite result below 10 mg/kg.
What moisture and water activity should the contract state?
Moisture ≤5.0% and water activity ≤0.30. FruitBuys releases lots at ≤4.0% and ≤0.25.
Which documents come with each container?
Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, lot COA, C/O Form EUR.1 and a phytosanitary certificate with every shipment.
How long does it take from order to shipment?
Samples dispatch in 3–5 working days; production takes 20–30 days per 20 ft container after deposit.
What duty applies in the EU?
0% for Vietnamese freeze-dried longan with a C/O Form EUR.1 under the EU–Vietnam trade agreement.
