How to check whether a buyer's purchase volumes are real

To check whether a buyer's claimed purchase volumes are real, turn the claim into a few plain facts (which product, how much per month, since when, from which countries and through which company) and compare them with the company's foreign trade data: how many shipments it has, over what period, in which product groups and with which partner countries. If the data roughly matches, the claim is plausible. If the company has no imports of the product, or far fewer than it says, ask questions before you give it better prices, credit or exclusivity.

Buyers often describe themselves as larger than they are. Sometimes it is a sales tactic to get a lower price or exclusive rights; sometimes the buyer counts its whole group or its plans for next year. Either way, your price, payment terms and production plan should rest on what the company actually imports.

Step 1. Write the claim down precisely

"We buy a lot of your product" cannot be checked. Ask for details and write them down:

• Product. Exactly which product and grade. If possible, the product code they import it under.
• Quantity and period. How much per month or per year, in tonnes, pieces or containers.
• Since when. How long they have been buying this product.
• Where from. From which countries and how many suppliers they buy now.
• Through which company. The full name of the legal entity that imports the goods in its own name. In a group, it may be a different company from the one that writes to you.

A real buyer answers these questions without difficulty. Vague answers or refusal to name the importing company are already a signal.

Step 2. Find the company and read the public summary

Search for the importing company by name or tax ID on the Company profiles page. On public company profiles, the "In brief" block at the top is open without signing in. It answers the first questions:

• whether the company is an importer, an exporter or both;
• over what period shipments were recorded and roughly how many ("over 2,200 foreign trade shipments");
• its main goods by HS code (the international product code used in foreign trade), up to three groups;
• its main partner countries, up to five.

The block shows no amounts and no counterparties, but it is enough to test the basics: does the company import at all, does it import your kind of product, and do the countries match what it told you.

Example: reading the summary against a claim

Take the public profile of Best Fruits AM LLC, Armenia. Its "In brief" block says:

• the company is an importer, with no export shipments in the data;
• from October 2025 to May 2026 over 2,200 foreign trade shipments were recorded;
• its main goods are 0805 (citrus fruit), 0803 (bananas) and 0810 (other fresh fruit);
• its main partner countries are Georgia, Iran, Ecuador, South Africa and Armenia (Armenia here means sellers registered in Armenia itself).

Over 2,200 shipments in eight months is about 275 a month across all its goods. If a fruit importer with this profile told you it buys citrus regularly from several countries, the data would back it up. If the same company said it imports frozen fish every month, the summary would not support that, and it is worth asking which company of the group imports the fish.

Keep in mind that a shipment is not a container. In shipment data, a consignment with several different products is usually counted once for each product, so the number of shipments is a measure of activity, not of tonnes. How to read these figures is covered in How to read foreign trade figures.

Step 3. Compare the scale

Bring the claim and the data to the same unit and the same period.

1. Per month. Divide the claimed yearly volume by twelve and compare it with the company's activity per month. A buyer that claims weekly containers but has only a few shipments in half a year is overstating.
2. For your product. On Find buyers, search your product code and check whether the company appears among the buyers. Once you open the report on a paid plan, the list shows the company's amount and number of shipments for this product over the last 12 months and how much it bought in each market.
3. Against the whole market. A ready-made report in Ready-made research shows the number of shipments, importers and exporters for the product in a country. With an opened report you also see each company's share of the market. If a buyer claims more than the whole country imports, or a share far above what the report shows, the claim does not hold.

Step 4. Check regularity and stability

The same total can mean steady monthly buying or one large order. For credit and production planning, the difference matters.

• By months. In the full company profile, available on a paid plan, the Finances block can be switched to By months. Look at how many months had shipments and whether there are long gaps.
• Due Diligence Checklist. An open profile also has this block. Its Company reality line shows the number of shipments and counterparties and how many months ago the company was last active. The Stability line shows the share of its largest counterparty and flags a sharp volume spike.
• Partners. A buyer that says it works with five suppliers but has one partner country and one dominant counterparty is describing its plans, not its present.

After free registration you see the full profile structure with the figures masked; with a plan the profile opens in full: amounts, volumes, prices and counterparties with registration details.

Red flags

• No imports at all, or none in your product group, while the company describes itself as a large importer of it.
• The claimed volume is bigger than the country's total imports of the product.
• Activity only in a few weeks or months, followed by silence, while the buyer speaks of "regular" purchases.
• Partner countries that do not match the story: "we buy only from Europe", but the data shows a different region.
• A sudden spike just before the talks with you, especially together with a request for deferred payment.
• Refusal to name the importing company, or a different company name on the contract and on the payment.
• Large volume claims used to ask for exclusivity, a long payment delay or a big discount on the first order.

Honest reasons why the data may not match

A mismatch is a reason to ask, not proof of a lie. Common honest explanations:

• Another company imports for them. The goods may be imported by a sister company, a distributor or an agent, and the buyer purchases from it inside the country. Ask for the name of that company and check it instead.
• Countries outside coverage. Orion Markets has shipment data for 14 countries; the list and periods are on the data coverage page. Imports into other countries are not visible, and the profile shows only the part of the trade that touches these countries.
• Data lag. The latest month differs by country. A buyer that started importing recently may not be visible yet.
• Different units. The buyer may count gross weight with packaging, retail value or the volume of a whole group. Ask how the figure was counted.
• A broad product code. The product may be imported under a neighbouring code. Check the codes in the profile, not only yours.

What to do with the result

• If the data matches, you can rely on the claim for pricing and planning, and still check registration and sanctions lists before the deal: see How to check a foreign company before a deal.
• If the data partly matches, ask specific questions: which company imports, from where, in which months. Real buyers answer them.
• If the data does not support the claim, do not give terms that depend on it. Start with a trial order on safe payment terms (prepayment or a letter of credit, where the buyer's bank guarantees payment once you present the shipping documents).
• Put volumes in the contract. If a buyer asks for exclusivity or a discount because of its volumes, tie them to a minimum annual quantity and agree what happens if it is not reached.

Limits of the check

• Trade data shows what crossed the border, not what the company sold or plans to buy.
• Large groups trade through several companies, sometimes in different countries. A small history of one company does not mean the group is small.
• Shipment counts and amounts show activity in the covered countries only.
• No data check replaces payment terms that protect you.

To start, find the buyer on the Company profiles page and read its "In brief" block. To see all importers of your product and their sizes, run a search on Find buyers.