Importing from China to Saudi Arabia: SABER, and what the factory has to give you
Saudi Arabia works the opposite way round to Egypt. The conformity certificates are held by the importer, not the factory, so the requirement does not narrow your choice of supplier. Two are needed in order: a Product Certificate of Conformity registering the product, then a Shipment Certificate of Conformity for each consignment, which Saudi customs wants for clearance. Both go through SABER.
Saudi Arabia puts the certificate on the importer, not the factory, so any supplier can ship. What the factory owes you is the evidence to register the product.
Two certificates, in that order, and they belong to you
Saudi Arabia replaced its old certificate of conformity arrangement with SABER in July 2018, an electronic platform run under SASO's product safety programme, SALEEM. Everything now goes through it, and it works in two stages that happen in a fixed order.
First comes the Product Certificate of Conformity, which registers a product and confirms it meets the applicable SASO technical regulation. SABER's own published fee is 500 Saudi riyals excluding VAT. Then, for each consignment, comes the Shipment Certificate of Conformity, at 350 riyals excluding VAT, whose validity SABER states has been extended from 60 to 90 days. The shipment certificate is the one Saudi customs wants in order to clear the goods.
The structural point matters more than the fees. Both certificates are obtained by the importer or a local manufacturer, not by the Chinese factory. That is the opposite of Egypt, where the factory itself has to sit on a register before it may supply listed goods at all. In Saudi Arabia a registration requirement does not narrow your choice of supplier, so you can select a factory on price, capability and quality in the ordinary way. What changes is what you have to get out of that factory, which is the subject of the next two sections.
| Step | Whose job | Cost and validity |
|---|---|---|
| Classify the product and find out whether a SASO technical regulation covers it | The importer, in SABER | Decides everything that follows |
| Product Certificate of Conformity, assessed by a SASO-approved body for a regulated product | The importer, using evidence the factory supplies | 500 SAR excluding VAT |
| Self-declaration instead, for an unregulated product | The importer, attaching technical documentation | No conformity body needed |
| Shipment Certificate of Conformity, per consignment | The importer | 350 SAR excluding VAT, valid 90 days |
Regulated or not is the fork that decides how much work this is
SABER splits products in two, and which side yours falls on changes the cost, the lead time and what you need from China. For a regulated product, one covered by a SASO technical regulation, the product certificate has to be issued by a SASO-approved certification body after a conformity assessment. For an unregulated product, the importer can instead self-declare compliance with voluntary standards by entering the product details and attaching technical documentation, receiving a supplier's declaration, and then the shipment certificate.
So the first question on any Saudi order is not the price. It is which side of that line the product sits on, and the honest answer is that it depends on a classification made in SABER against a published technical regulation rather than on anybody's opinion. SASO's technical regulations cover textiles, construction and building materials, mechanical and metallurgical products, electrical and electronic equipment, chemicals and petroleum products, vehicles and transport, communications and information technology devices, and machinery safety, among others.
Some categories are not SASO's at all. Food, drugs and medical devices sit with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, and telecommunications and IT products with the communications regulator. Finding out which authority owns your product before you order is cheaper than finding out at the port, where the consequence of failing to meet the standard is rejection, re-export or destruction at the importer's expense.
What the Chinese factory actually owes you
Because you hold the certificate, the factory's job is to give you the evidence that lets you get it. That is a different conversation from the one about price, and it is one a factory selling mainly into its domestic market may never have had.
Ask, before you commit, whether the factory can supply test reports against the specific SASO technical regulation that applies, and whether those reports come from a laboratory the approved certification body will accept. A test report against a Chinese national standard, or against a European one, is not automatically usable. If the factory has shipped to Saudi Arabia before, ask to see a product certificate from a previous order, because that is evidence the paperwork route works for their product rather than a promise that it will.
Then put the documentation into the order itself rather than treating it as an afterthought, alongside the specification. Our guide on writing a product spec covers why an instruction that is not in the order is not an instruction, and conformity evidence is exactly the kind of thing that gets agreed verbally and then does not arrive. A pre-shipment inspection is the point at which you can check that the goods match the product you registered, which is a different question from whether they are well made.
Small trial orders carry a fixed certification cost
The fee structure has a consequence that is easy to miss when planning a first order. The product certificate is charged per product and the shipment certificate per consignment, so the certification cost of a trial does not shrink with the size of the trial. Testing four products in one small shipment means four product registrations plus one shipment certificate, whatever the goods are worth.
That pushes in a particular direction: settle the range before you certify it, rather than registering products you may drop after the trial. It also makes consolidating into fewer, fuller consignments more attractive than it would otherwise be, because each additional consignment carries its own shipment certificate.
The 90-day validity of the shipment certificate is the other planning constraint. It has to still be valid when the goods present at customs, so it belongs on the shipping timeline next to the sailing date rather than being obtained as early as possible. On a long production run, obtaining it too early is a real risk, and production slipping by a few weeks is ordinary rather than exceptional.
What we can do for a Saudi buyer, and what we cannot
What we do is the China half of the order: finding and vetting the factory, pressing it for the test reports and technical documentation you need to register the product, negotiating, sampling, inspecting before payment, and getting the goods documented, packed and loaded. Because the Saudi certificates are yours rather than the factory's, the useful work at our end is making sure the factory produces evidence your certification body will accept, which is where an order stalls when nobody is doing it.
On commercial terms, we can quote a price to your own destination port, so Jeddah, Dammam or onward to a dry port, and ex-works or a price to a Chinese port is there instead if your own freight forwarder is handling the sea leg. Door-to-door with duty and taxes included depends on the destination; ask, and we will tell you plainly which one applies rather than quoting first and discovering later.
What we do not do is register products in SABER on your behalf, advise on Saudi import law or act as your customs broker. The classification, the certificates and the clearance are yours, and they go better with a broker and a SASO-approved certification body appointed early. Tell us the product and say the goods are going to Saudi Arabia in the first message. The wider picture for buyers outside the UK is in the guide to buying from China from anywhere, and Egypt is worked through separately because it runs on the opposite principle.
Frequently asked questions
Does my Chinese factory need to be registered to ship to Saudi Arabia?
No. Unlike Egypt, where listed goods may only come from a factory on the GOEIC register, Saudi Arabia puts the conformity certificates on the importer or a local manufacturer. So the requirement does not narrow your choice of supplier. What the factory must provide is the test evidence and technical documentation that lets you register the product in SABER.
What do SABER's certificates cost?
SABER publishes the Product Certificate of Conformity at 500 Saudi riyals excluding VAT and the Shipment Certificate of Conformity at 350 riyals excluding VAT, with the shipment certificate's validity extended from 60 to 90 days. The product certificate is charged per product and the shipment certificate per consignment, so a small trial carries the same certification cost as a large one.
What is the difference between a regulated and an unregulated product in SABER?
A regulated product is covered by a SASO technical regulation and its product certificate must be issued by a SASO-approved certification body after a conformity assessment. For an unregulated product the importer can instead self-declare compliance with voluntary standards by entering details and attaching technical documentation, then obtain the shipment certificate.
Do you ship to Saudi Arabia?
We can quote a price to Jeddah or Dammam, and ex-works or a price to a Chinese port if your own freight forwarder is taking the sea leg. Door-to-door with duty and taxes included depends on the destination, so ask rather than assume. We do not register products in SABER, advise on Saudi import law or act as your customs broker.