🇹🇻How to verify a supplier in Tuvalu

Registry

Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED)

Company ID

business licence reference

Cost

Free basic lookup

Active status

Because there is no online register, treat a Tuvalu company as verified only after MoFED or the Tuvalu Trade Portal confirms it in writing; a listing on any third-party website is not proof.

• Tuvalu (population about 11,000) has no industry, no factories and no export manufacturers. Any website advertising Tuvalu industrial producers, exporters or virgin coconut oil suppliers is an auto-generated aggregator: one such page actually routes to an Indonesian exporter with no Tuvalu presence. A distributor offering large lots is almost always a Fiji, New Zealand or Australia reseller, so demand a physical Funafuti address and warehouse.
• Import and export rules and licence requirements are on the UNCTAD-run Tuvalu Trade Portal (tuvalu.tradeportal.org); it lists government offices and procedures, not private companies.
• The one genuine local maker signal is the Funafuti women's handicraft cluster (pandanus weaving and shell craft), which is local and tourist trade, not an export business. All consumer goods are imported, and documentary proof of a firm generally needs a paid PDF register extract through an intermediary.

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.