FOSFA 54 explained: the CIF vegetable and marine oil form

FOSFA 54 is the FOSFA International standard contract form titled Vegetable and Marine Oil – CIF Terms. On FOSFA's own contracts list it appears as No. 54, revised and effective April 2024. It is the CIF member of a family of forms for the same goods on different delivery terms: No. 53 is the FOB version, No. 56 covers collection and ex works, No. 57 free delivered.

The number fixes the goods and the delivery term in one token, and who insures and who samples follows from the form it points at. Background on the federation itself is in what FOSFA is and what it does.

What FOSFA 54 is for

The form is used where vegetable or marine oil is sold on CIF (cost, insurance and freight) terms. FOSFA states that its CIF contracts include insurance clauses.

FOSFA also publishes an optional C&F clause, AS42, for a group of CIF forms that includes No. 54. Where the parties adopt it, the trade runs on C&F terms without the form's insurance provisions.

What the form settles

The text is FOSFA copyright and we do not reproduce it. The clause names are public, because FOSFA's optional and special clauses document refers to them, and they map the ground the form covers:

• Sampling and analysis: the clause that two optional add-ons for No. 54 extend. AS40 deals with keeping pre-shipment and loading samples, AS44 with extra landtank samples drawn just before loading.
• Payment: AS42 refers to the payment clause of the CIF forms it covers, No. 54 among them. FOSFA's general clause AS9 ties the previous cargo statements to the payment and shipping documents provisions.
• Insurance and war risk: part of the CIF form, set aside where AS42 is agreed.
• Shipment period: the window the seller must ship in. An optional extension of shipment clause, HH54, is published for use with No. 54 (the clause itself refers to the 2008 edition), against a reduction in the contract price.
• Adjustment of outturn: FOSFA's description is a clause relating to prices for excess or deficit delivery.

This article describes No. 54 only from what FOSFA publishes openly, so it gives no clause numbers, tolerances or wording from the form itself. For those, read the edition your contract refers to against your recap.

Settlement prices and the outturn clause

FOSFA publishes settlement prices under the Adjustment of Outturn Clause for two contracts, No. 54 and No. 80, both listed on its settlement prices page as oil in bulk on delivered weights. A Price Settlement Committee sets the prices from CIF Rotterdam values for arrivals on Mondays and Thursdays, in US$ per metric ton, for Malaysian and Indonesian crude palm oil, Malaysian and Indonesian crude palm kernel oil, and Philippine and Indonesian crude coconut oil. A separate clause, NN, is deemed incorporated in contracts for Malaysian palm kernel oil and sets out how a surplus or deficiency at destination is settled.

For the surveyor this is where the contract meets the quay. By long-established practice, endorsed by FOSFA's Oils and Fats Committee, the price that applies is the one for the date the first parcel is discharged at the designated port, whatever later parcels or owners discharge. Where the contract names a berth, the first discharge at that berth counts. The discharge records therefore decide which published price is used. Which measurement fixes the delivered quantity is set by the form itself.

FOSFA 54 next to 53, 80, 81 and 22

No.	Contract name, per the April 2024 FOSFA list	In short
53	Vegetable and Marine Oil – FOB Terms	FOB version of 54
54	Vegetable and Marine Oil – CIF Terms	CIF version
56	Vegetable and Marine Oil – Collection/Ex Works Terms	Collection/ex works version
57	Vegetable and Marine Oil – Free Delivered Terms	Free delivered version
80	Crude Unbleached Palm Oil – CIF Terms (with MPOA)	Specific crude palm oil form
81	Palm and Palm Kernel Oil Products (with PORAM, MEOMA)	Joint palm products form
22	South American Soyabeans – C&F/C&FFO Terms	A seed form

Number 22 is listed for contrast: it is a soyabean form on C&F terms, not an oil form. For what the delivery terms themselves commit each side to, see CIF contracts for agricultural commodities.

Previous cargoes and sampling under a 54 trade

A tank's history is part of a 54 trade. The standard contract refers to the FOSFA list of banned immediate previous cargoes. As FOSFA's previous cargo page puts it, optional clause AS9 restricts the immediate previous cargo to the list of acceptable previous cargoes instead; the restrictions beyond the immediate previous cargo still apply.

Two further clauses, EU1 for oils that are to be processed and EU2 for oils that are not, add Commission Regulation (EU) No 579/2014 on top of AS9 for oils and fats for human consumption shipped to EU ports. The regulation is stricter for oils that will not be further processed: the tank must be of stainless steel or lined with epoxy resin or a technical equivalent, and the three previous cargoes must have been foodstuffs.

FOSFA states that the lists in force at the date of the bill of lading apply, whatever the date of the contract. The detail is in FOSFA banned and acceptable previous cargoes, and the practical side of drawing and sealing samples in sampling rules in the agricultural trade.

What the FOSFA 54 form does not contain

The arbitration procedure sits in a separate document: the FOSFA Rules of Arbitration and Appeal, in the current edition revised and effective from 1 April 2026. A claim for quality or condition must be despatched to the other party and to FOSFA within 90 consecutive days of completion of discharge on CIF, CIFFO, C&F and similar terms. Other claims run to one year after the end of the shipment period or completion of final discharge, whichever is later. Notice of appeal against an award must reach FOSFA by 12.00 London time on the 28th consecutive day after the date of the award. More on the procedure in GAFTA and FOSFA arbitration.

Most of the optional and special clauses sit outside the form and apply only where the parties agree them, as AS9, HH54 and AS42 do. A few are deemed incorporated without agreement, such as NN for Malaysian palm kernel oil under No. 54. "FOSFA 54" on its own therefore does not tell you which of them is in play; the recap and the goods do.

Getting the right edition of FOSFA 54

Work from the edition your contract refers to. FOSFA lists the forms in force under Current Contracts, where No. 54 is the 2024 edition, and keeps earlier editions, including No. 54 of 2021, in its contracts archive. Members download the forms from fosfa.org; the site sets out the terms for non-members. Operium is not a FOSFA member and holds no FOSFA approval.

FOSS is software for inspection companies and the port, with a sector specialist at the table. It calculates outturn per medium against the bill of lading weight, flags a protest automatically at more than 0.5% short, and tracks samples. If that is the paperwork you are working through, get in touch.