Five to ten kilos a month, China to India: anything between courier rates and air freight minimums?

At ten kilos the courier is not robbing you; the booking shape is. Air freight has a destination floor, the same at ten kilos or a hundred, so one box alone loses to the courier. The lever is not the rate per kilo but the overhead per booking. Ask the forwarder whether they run a consol on that lane (one master airway bill, many shippers' cargo under it) and let your box ride inside, so your ten kilos share the master and the destination handling rather than carrying them alone.

The one that taught me was a repeat order of lamp shades to a buyer in India, sixth month, held a week because the courier waybill said decor and the value was whatever the driver typed. Once a lane repeats, a vague waybill is thin paper. Every box needs its own invoice, with the code and a value that is the same value the partner will see at clearance, so he never explains a mismatch. A spare part with no value on the paper is the kind that comes back.

Settle one more thing with whoever moves it: do they look inside the box each month, or do they simply seal what the supplier drops off and send it? On the first shipment it hardly matters. By the sixth, when the partner opens a box that is short, you want a photograph and a count taken before it left, because the supplier will say it was complete and the forwarder will say it was sealed. I keep that record for every consignment.