About ExportBali
I’ve been here a long time. Long enough to know who to trust.
I’m Indonesian. I grew up in Java and moved to Bali in 1999. I didn’t come here to open an agency. It happened because I knew things most buyers didn’t. I knew which stonecutter in Gianyar does honest work. I knew which furniture workshop promises custom designs but can’t actually deliver them. I knew which cargo company treats your shipment like it matters.
The first person I ever did this for was a friend from Australia. He was starting a business and furnishing a house at the same time, and he had already chosen the workshop he wanted to buy from. I saw the fine powder on the floor. The supplier kept sweeping it away, but I knew what it meant. Termites, already in the wood. I told him not to buy it. I took him to a workshop I trust instead. Better made, and it cost him less. He filled a 40-foot container, some of it to sell and some of it for his own house. He kept buying from Bali for years after that, and he stopped needing to fly here to do it.
So I started putting that knowledge to work.
Twenty-plus years later, ExportBali is what it is because of relationships. Not a website. Not a fancy office. Relationships with workshops, factories, carvers, weavers, and cargo handlers who know that when I send them a client, I expect them to perform.
I’m Indonesian. That changes what I can find out.
Most sourcing agents in Bali work through translators, or in whatever English the supplier can manage. I don’t. Indonesian is my first language and Java is where I grew up. The supplier conversation happens exactly as it would if you weren’t part of it at all.
That sounds like a small thing. It isn’t.
When I sit down with a workshop and go through your specifications, I catch what doesn’t translate. I notice hesitation. I notice when someone agrees because it’s polite, not because they can actually do what you’re asking. An Australian client once sent through detailed custom instructions and the workshop said yes to all of them. They had not understood half of it. I went through it with them in Indonesian until the problem was out in the open, and only then did I know what they could really do. I can push, ask the uncomfortable question, and get a real answer, without anyone losing face.
That part I don’t delegate.
My English is fluent, so nothing gets lost at your end either. My husband Daniel is German. He looks after German-speaking clients in German, and he’s a second pair of eyes on quality before anything ships. Twenty-plus years in, I still think two people checking beats one.
ExportBali is mine. I started it, I run it, and I’m the one you’ll be dealing with. Daniel helps me. That’s the shape of it.
I work for both sides, and I mean it
A lot of agents are purely buyer advocates. They push for the lowest possible price and treat suppliers as a means to an end. The problem is that destroys relationships, and eventually, quality suffers.
I want my suppliers to run sustainable, profitable businesses. I want them to value my clients’ orders. And I want my clients to receive exactly what they paid for. Both things are entirely achievable. You just have to manage the relationship properly, in the language it’s actually conducted in.
What ExportBali handles, start to finish
- Initial brief: you tell me what you need, I ask the right questions
- Supplier search: I identify candidates from my network and visit them in person
- Sampling & photos: I document everything before you commit
- Quality control: before production ships, I check it against your specifications
- Export documentation: certificate of origin, packing lists, commercial invoices
- Cargo & shipping: coordinated with my trusted cargo partner in Bali
- Updates throughout: you always know where your order is
Tell me what you’re looking for
Send me the product, the quantities, and where it’s going. I’ll tell you honestly whether I can source it well, and what it realistically costs.