🇸🇽How to verify a supplier in Sint Maarten
To verify a supplier in Sint Maarten, look the company up for free in the official Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) Sint Maarten Trade Register and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns a free public online search by company name, trade name or COCI number that confirms a Sint Maarten business is registered in the Chamber of Commerce trade register; a legally usable certified excerpt is a paid document from the COCI office.
The official registry
- Registry
- Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) Sint Maarten Trade Register
- Company ID
- COCI registration number
- Cost
- Free basic lookup
- Active status
- A company found in the COCI trade register is a registered Sint Maarten (Dutch-side) business; because the island is shared, anything based in Marigot, Grand-Case or Orient Bay is French Saint-Martin (a separate jurisdiction) and will not appear in COCI.
- Sint Maarten uses the Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG), though the US dollar is accepted everywhere. There is no VAT; businesses pay a Turnover Tax (TOT) of about 5 percent and are identified by their COCI number rather than a VAT number.
- Sint Maarten is the Dutch southern half of the island; the northern half is French Saint-Martin (country code MF) with its own rules and registry, so confirm which side a supplier is on before checking a register.
- The economy is heavily import-driven (tourism-led), so the dominant businesses are importer-wholesalers and cash-and-carry distributors; genuine local production is small but real, led by the Sint Maarten Guavaberry liqueur, local rum and craft beer, and a few skincare and craft makers.
Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer
The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.
- Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
- Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
- Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
- Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
- Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.
General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.
Verify it in four steps
- 1
Open the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) Sint Maarten Trade Register
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) Sint Maarten Trade Register is the official government record of companies in Sint Maarten. Basic name or number search is free.
- 2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its COCI registration number. If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
- 3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
A company found in the COCI trade register is a registered Sint Maarten (Dutch-side) business; because the island is shared, anything based in Marigot, Grand-Case or Orient Bay is French Saint-Martin (a separate jurisdiction) and will not appear in COCI.
- 4
Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
We do this check for you
On every Sint Maarten company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine Sint Maarten suppliers, not just the loudest.
Sint Maarten suppliers by sector
Every company on these pages shows what the open record says about it, each fact linked to its free public source.
Related guides
Questions
Is checking a Sint Maarten supplier free?
Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) Sint Maarten Trade Register is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.
What ID does a Sint Maarten company have?
Its COCI registration number. Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI) Sint Maarten Trade Register and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a Sint Maarten supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. Sint Maarten uses the Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG), though the US dollar is accepted everywhere. There is no VAT; businesses pay a Turnover Tax (TOT) of about 5 percent and are identified by their COCI number rather than a VAT number.