You get paid where the bank pulls back
You collect even in the corridors your bank backs out of.
The number is told to your face before anything moves.
The money reaches you depending on the corridor.
So you always know where your payment is.
Why the bank won't receive
The problem is almost never your buyer. It's the route between their country and yours. These are the three walls a food exporter runs into:
The bank won't receive from your buyer's country
You sold to a country your bank doesn't want to send money to or take money from, and what you're owed simply doesn't come through. This is the hardest one: a payment that's already yours gets stuck on the other side.
Your buyer is solid, but the bank treats them as difficult
The bank pushes the operation back over your buyer's profile or their location, even when the money is ready on the other end. It happens more than you'd think.
The payment takes weeks, and your cargo doesn't wait
How long you wait depends on your buyer's country more than on anything you do. The slowest-paying markets take around 66 days to pay an invoice and the fastest about 27, with a global average of 36 days, according to Allianz Trade. For a food business, a late payment is the field payroll waiting on Friday.
Trilla builds the direct route where the bank backs out. Where the bank says there's no path, we have one, and you collect what you sold.
For container-size operations
We work on operations at the container-size band and up, with no ceiling above. It's the level where a real food exporter needs the payment to arrive in full: a container, a season's lot, a committed shipment.
It isn't a small market. Some 80 to 90 percent of world trade runs on trade finance, mostly short-term, according to the World Trade Organization. Behind that figure are thousands of shipments that have to get collected, on time, to keep the next one moving.
The international payment methods for exporters, by risk
Most exporters get paid through one of a handful of international payment methods, and each one carries a different risk and a different wait. From the safest for you to the riskiest, as laid out by the U.S. International Trade Administration. Every one still runs on the same bank route, and that route is exactly where food exporters get stuck.
Trilla is the direct path instead. Here is how your payment moves:
What makes the cost vary
Not every payment costs or takes the same, and we tell you why before we start. Three things move the needle:
The corridor you're paid from
Collecting from a major market isn't the same as an emerging destination with no direct bank route. Each corridor has its own wait and its own cost.
How urgent your cargo is
If you sell perishable goods and your buyer pays against shipment, time runs the show, and that's planned differently than a payment with room to breathe.
Your buyer's currency
You receive with one clear currency change: we tell you how much reaches you in your own currency before anything moves, with no surprises along the way.
What doesn't change: one currency change, the final number said to your face, and zero fees hidden between banks you don't control.
How your money is handled
Trilla moves your money, it doesn't hold it. When your buyer pays, that money comes in only to make your payment and goes straight out to your account. It's just passing through, on a watched route from start to finish, and because you follow every step in real time, you're never left wondering where your payment is. That's the difference between money that's on its way through a safe route and money that sits in the limbo of a bank that won't pick up the phone. Before we move anything, we review both sides of the operation, so what reaches you is the payment you were expecting.
Where this works, by region
Your company is registered in Latin America. Your buyer can be in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, or the United States. We build the route for the corridor you actually sell into, not a generic one.
Corridors where Trilla moves food payments today
The exporter shipped a season lot and needed the payment to land in time to meet their people and release the next shipment. It came in on the route Trilla built.
COLLECTED IN FULLThe buyer had the funds ready in their country, but no correspondent bank covered the corridor. The payment came in through the route Trilla built.
COLLECTED IN FULLA mid-sized exporter, too big for a personal transfer and too small for the trade bank, collected their full shipment without the wait.
COLLECTED IN FULLRepresentative corridors. Detail and timing shown as each case is cleared for publication.
We collect for whatever food you sell abroad
Coffee, sugar, fruit, grain, meat, or any food you sell to a buyer abroad. When the corridor guides for your product and route are live, you'll find the one that matches your shipment here.
If this sounds like you, it's you
You sell food to a buyer in another country, and you need the payment for that shipment to reach you in full and on time for your season. Your company is registered in Latin America; your buyer can be anywhere your bank struggles to reach. It isn't for you if your operations fall below that band or if you're sending a personal transfer.
Frequently asked questions
How do I open my account with Trilla?
You tell us what you export and where your buyer is, and we set up your account in about 1 to 5 business days. From there, every payment from that buyer comes in through the same route.
What does it cost to collect a payment?
It depends on the corridor and your buyer's currency. We tell you the cost and the number that reaches you before you give the order, never after. One currency change, no fees hidden between banks.
Why does the bank reject the payment for my export?
Usually it's not about you or your buyer, it's about the route. The bank may have no path to your buyer's country, treat that market as difficult, or simply take weeks moving the money between intermediary banks. That's where Trilla comes in: we build the direct route, and your payment comes through.
What's the safest payment method for exporters?
The one with the least risk for you is getting paid before you ship, but few buyers accept it, and insisting on it can cost you the sale. Shipping first and waiting for payment, called open account, is the most common method buyers ask for and the riskiest for you. Trilla doesn't change your terms with your buyer; it changes the route the money travels, so what you agreed actually reaches you.
How do exporters get paid across borders?
Through one of a few methods, payment in advance, a bank's promise against documents, a documents-for-money exchange, or shipping on credit, all of which still run on the bank route. Trilla is the direct path instead: your buyer sends one request for payment, and it reaches your account in full.
How long does it take to get paid for an export?
On the bank route, it varies widely by your buyer's country, from under a month to two months or more. With Trilla, the money reaches you the same business day or up to 48 hours, depending on the corridor, and you follow every step until it lands.