Specialty Crops 

Procurement 

Division 

How to Bid on Offshore Orders 
Introductions

• Cedric Hopkins- Agricultural Marketing Specialist, 

Vegetable and Pulses Branch (Canned Dried Beans)

• Claudius Price- Agricultural Marketing Specialist, 

Vegetable and Pulses Branch (Frozen Vegetables, Fresh Potato 

Products)
Program 

Overview

• Commodity Procurement Program purchases USDA foods 

that are delivered to not only the 48 contiguous states, but 

also its outlying states, Hawaii and Alaska, as well as its 

territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin 

Islands. 

• These USDA foods support Food and Nutrition Service led 

programs including the National School Lunch Program and 

the Emergency Food Assistance Program. 
Delivery Options 

• Commodity Procurement offers two delivery options 

when soliciting for offshore deliveries. 

• When submitting an offer your company can choose to 

bid to either port city or final destination, when 

available. 
Bidding to Port City

• The USDA will designate a port city such as Jacksonville, Los 

Angeles, Seattle, etc. when shipping to an offshore location. 

• If your bid to port city is accepted, your company is responsible 

for making a delivery appointment at the port and successfully 

delivering it to the specified port location.

• The USDA will handle booking the ocean carrier and final 

delivery from there. 

• After your shipment is received at the port location you are able 

to submit an invoice through WBSCM and receive payment. 
Example of Awarded Delivery to Port
WBSCM Demonstration Part 1

• Once you have opened the bid and advanced through the appropriate 

steps, you will need to export the information to excel: 
WBSCM Demonstration Part 2

• Once you have exported and saved the excel file, you will look 

for the offshore indicator as well as the load port price:

Final Destination 
WBSCM Demonstration Part 3

• It is very important to note that you should not alter any other part of 

the excel spreadsheet prior to saving.

• Once you are ready to save, only save via the floppy disk icon in the 

upper left hand corner:
WBSCM Demonstration Part 4

• Now you are ready to import the spreadsheet into WBSCM:
WBSCM Demonstration Part 5

• To verify that your offshore bid has been entered correctly, you can select the

Items tab, select Expand All tab.
WBSCM Demonstration Part 6

• Select the hyperlinked See Conditions. 

• Once you have selected See Conditions, you will be able to see the 

prices you have entered for the offshore port and final destination.
WBSCM Demonstration Part 7

• If you receive any errors below, please note that this is not a hard 

stop, and you can continue forward. However, please contact the 

helpdesk and we will be able to add the product to your vendor 

profile.
WBSCM Demonstration Part 8

• Finally, please click the “Submit” button: 
WBSCM Demonstration Part 9

• Please find the work instructions here.

• You can find the relevant instructions beginning with step 22 on page 14.

• If you need additional support, please contact the WBSCM helpdesk ( WBSCMAMSHelpdesk@usda.gov) and 

someone on our team will be able to assist.
Closing and Q&A