Total Landed Cost, Not Unit Price: The Real Cost of Importing to Juba

Tony Miller

Aug 18

7 min read

Total landed cost is what a unit costs by the time it reaches your field team, not the figure on the supplier's quotation. For an import into Juba it has ten lines, and the unit price is only one of them. On a landlocked corridor, the other nine routinely decide which quotation is actually cheaper.

Why does the unit price mislead on a South Sudan import?

Because South Sudan is landlocked, and the cost of crossing somebody else's territory is not in the unit price. South Sudan is one of the 32 landlocked developing countries listed by UN-OHRLLS, a group that on average pays more than double what transit countries pay in transport costs. The same UN-OHRLLS page cites a World Bank estimate that landlocked developing countries spent US$3,884 to import a container against US$1,434 for transit countries. That gap never appears on a pro-forma invoice. It appears later, as freight, clearance, demurrage and inland haulage, after the purchase order has been raised against the lowest unit price.

So two quotations can be ranked correctly only after the full stack is built. An ex-works price from Europe and a delivered price from Juba stock are not like for like, and the ex-works number will always look better on evaluation day. Our work across South Sudan starts from the opposite assumption: price the chain, then price the goods.

What sits in the cost stack for an import into Juba?

Ten lines, in the order they hit you:

Unit price. The ex-works or FOB cost of the goods themselves.
Origin handling and export packing. Palletisation, export documentation, container stuffing. Cheap goods often arrive in packaging that will not survive a corridor.
International freight. Sea freight to Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti or Port Sudan, or air freight where the timeline forces it.
Marine insurance. Priced on cargo value, but the deductible and the claims process matter more than the premium.
Port, terminal and clearing-agent charges. Terminal handling, documentation and agency fees at the corridor port, then again at the border.
Duty, VAT and the cost of running the exemption. Humanitarian consignments are often exempt, but the exemption is a workflow with staff time, lead time and a failure mode attached, not a zero.
Demurrage and storage. Container detention and port storage accrue daily while paperwork catches up, which punishes a slow consignee hardest.
Inland transport. The road leg from the corridor port to Juba, which on most consignments outweighs the sea freight.
In-country handling, warehousing and last-mile. Offloading, storage in Juba, and the final movement to the county or camp where the goods are needed.
Wastage, shrinkage and non-conformance. Damage, pilferage, expiry, and product that fails inspection on arrival.

The Incoterm decides where in that stack the seller stops. The ICC's Incoterms 2020 are 11 rules allocating cost and risk between buyer and seller, and each states which party must obtain the import authorisation, per the US International Trade Administration. Delivered Duty Paid puts import clearance and duty on the seller; Delivered at Place does not. Buying DAP into a market you cannot clear in is how lines 5 to 8 quietly become yours.

A worked example: two quotations for the same 500 boxes

The figures below are an illustrative worked example built to show how the stack behaves. They are not observed market rates and should not be quoted as such; ask your own suppliers for their line-item numbers in this shape. Supplier A quotes ex-works Europe at US$22.00 per box, DAP Juba. Supplier B quotes US$26.00 per box, DDP, from stock already in Juba. On the unit line, Supplier A is 15% cheaper.

| Cost line (per box) | Supplier A (ex-works, DAP) | Supplier B (DDP, Juba stock) |

|---|---|---|

| Unit price | 22.00 | 26.00 (delivered Juba, all-in) |

| Origin handling and export packing | 0.60 | included |

| Sea freight to the corridor port | 2.90 | included |

| Marine insurance | 0.25 | included |

| Port, terminal and clearing agent | 1.40 | included |

| Duty exemption handling | 0.35 | included |

| Demurrage and storage (9 days) | 1.10 | none |

| Inland transport to Juba | 4.80 | included |

| Handling and last-mile to county | 1.60 | 1.90 |

| Wastage and non-conformance allowance | 0.66 (3%) | 0.13 (0.5%) |

| Total landed cost | 35.66 | 28.03 |

The quotation that was 15% cheaper on the unit line arrives 27% more expensive. Inland transport, demurrage and a realistic wastage allowance did that, and none of the three were visible at evaluation. Lead time compounds it: goods bought ex-works sit ten to fourteen weeks from a field site, goods bought from in-country stock sit days from it.

Which lines actually move the number?

Inland transport, demurrage and wastage, in that order. Rate-shopping the sea leg is the most common optimisation and the least useful, because on a Juba import the road leg usually costs more than the ocean leg. Demurrage is worse: it is not a price you negotiate but a penalty you accrue for every day clearance is unfinished, and a consignee without standing customs relationships and a ready exemption file accrues it every time.

Wastage deserves more weight than most bills of quantity give it. At least 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified, and countries spend an estimated US$30.5 billion a year on such products, per the WHO fact sheet updated on 3 December 2024. Water treatment products bought outside an authorised chain carry the same class of risk, and stock that fails inspection has no usable landed cost at all. That is the case for authorised-distributor sourcing put as a cost line rather than as a virtue.

What does delay cost, and why is it never on the invoice?

Delay is the eleventh line, and it appears on none of the ten. In South Sudan it is measurable in weeks. OCHA's Humanitarian Access Snapshot for July 2025 recorded a Bor to Malakal river convoy carrying roughly 4,000 metric tonnes on two barges and 14 boats, blocked at the New Fangak checkpoint in Jonglei after 13 days on the water and left stalled at Wasket, despite clearances having been secured in advance. Flooding then closes the roads on schedule: around 1,024,500 people were flood-affected across 29 counties by late October 2025, per OCHA's floods snapshot of 30 October 2025.

The programme clock runs regardless. WHO's Disease Outbreak News DON579 recorded 71,825 suspected cholera cases and 1,194 deaths in South Sudan between 1 January and 17 August 2025, a case fatality rate of 1.7%. Chlorination supplies that arrive four weeks late in an outbreak are not a saving; they are a failure with a low unit price.

How do you buy on landed cost instead of unit price?

Six practical moves, all available inside a normal tender process:

Ask for the stack, not the price. Require every bidder to quote the ten lines separately. A supplier who cannot itemise inland transport and clearance has not priced them, and will pass them to you later.
Buy DDP wherever the supplier can genuinely deliver it. Import clearance sits with the seller under DDP, per the ICC Incoterms 2020 rules, which puts demurrage risk on the party best placed to manage it.
Use an in-country consignee. The exemption file, the clearing-agent relationship and a physical presence at the port are what compress lines 5 to 7.
Price the exemption as work, not as zero. Duty relief costs lead time and staff hours, and it occasionally fails.
Buy from in-country stock where the product allows it. UN procurement totalled US$22.7 billion in 2025, of which US$4.3 billion, an 18.8% share, went to suppliers in least developed countries, per the UN Procurement Data Portal. Regional sourcing is mainstream buying now, not an exception.
Hold the stock in-country, not at origin. Warehousing in Juba converts a twelve-week import into a two-day dispatch and removes the delay line entirely.

This matters more in 2026 than it did in 2023. The 2025 global humanitarian appeal received only US$12 billion, the lowest in a decade, and South Sudan's own 2025 response plan required US$1.7 billion but received US$778 million, 46% of the requirement. A halved budget cannot absorb a 27% landed-cost overrun caused by a quotation that looked cheap.

Frequently asked questions

What is total landed cost?

Total landed cost is the full cost of a unit delivered to its point of use: unit price, origin handling, freight, insurance, port and clearing charges, duty and exemption handling, demurrage, inland transport, in-country handling and last-mile, and wastage. For a landlocked destination those non-unit lines are substantial, because landlocked developing countries pay more than double what transit countries pay in transport costs.

How much more does a landlocked country pay to import a container?

UN-OHRLLS cites a World Bank estimate that landlocked developing countries spent US$3,884 to import a container against US$1,434 for transit countries. South Sudan is one of the 32 landlocked developing countries on the UN-OHRLLS list.

Does buying DDP reduce total landed cost?

Usually yes for a hard-to-reach destination, because import clearance and duty sit with the seller under Delivered Duty Paid, and each of the 11 ICC Incoterms 2020 rules states which party must obtain import authorisation, per the US International Trade Administration. Moving that obligation to a party with an in-country clearing capability removes most demurrage exposure.

Why is the cheapest unit price often the most expensive option?

Because the lines it excludes, inland transport, demurrage and wastage, are larger than the discount. Product quality risk sits in the same place: at least 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified, and rejected stock has no usable landed cost at all.

How long can delay add to a South Sudan import?

Weeks, and it is routine rather than exceptional. OCHA recorded a roughly 4,000-tonne river convoy on two barges and 14 boats blocked at the New Fangak checkpoint in Jonglei in July 2025 and left stalled at Wasket, despite clearances secured in advance, alongside seasonal road closures during the flood season.