GAFTA 49 is one of the most frequently incorporated standard forms in the grain trade, and one of the least frequently read. It allocates the core FOB obligations - vessel, delivery, extension, default - and it decides disputes long before arbitrators do.
GAFTA 49 is the GAFTA standard form for delivery of goods on FOB terms. The basic allocation is simple: the seller must deliver the goods on board at the agreed port within the delivery period, and the buyer must present a vessel in time to receive them.
The form is publicly available on the GAFTA website. Editions are updated regularly, and deadlines and mechanisms change between them, so a contract should refer to a specific edition rather than to "GAFTA 49" at large.
Most often the form enters a deal through a single line: all other terms as per GAFTA 49. That line is consent to everything in the form except what the parties rewrote by hand, including the forms GAFTA 49 itself incorporates: GAFTA 123 on weighing, GAFTA 124 on sampling and analysis, GAFTA 125 on arbitration. The mechanics of that line are covered in the rest terms as per GAFTA 49 note.
On FOB terms the buyer charters and nominates the vessel. Nomination is a formal step with its own deadlines and content: which vessel, for which period, with what preadvice. A late or defective nomination starts a dispute as reliably as undelivered goods.
The seller is not simply waiting. The goods must be ready for loading within the delivery period, with the documents the form requires. Unready goods against a presented vessel is the mirror-image problem with the same ending.
If the buyer cannot present a vessel in time, current editions of GAFTA 49 allow the buyer to extend the delivery period by up to 10 consecutive days. The extra time is not free: storage, bank interest and other carrying costs fall on the buyer.
Extension does not switch on automatically. Notice must be given by the deadline the form sets, and a missed notice can leave the buyer both without the extension and in default. How the mechanism differs across GAFTA forms is covered in the extension as per GAFTA note.
The default clause converts non-performance into money: damages are built on the difference between the contract price and the market or substitute price at the date of default. The further the market has moved, the more expensive the default.
A separate trap is declaring default too early. A counterparty's worrying signals do not always amount to a refusal to perform, and a premature declaration can make you the party in breach - see the note on premature default.
Disputes under GAFTA 49 go to GAFTA arbitration under form 125. Every claim and notice has its own deadline, and GAFTA time bars are strict: a late notice changes the legal position even where the substance is on your side.
Checking deadlines is the first step at any hint of a dispute: how time bars work and how GAFTA arbitration starts.
The practical routine is short: open the current edition, check which terms of your main contract depart from the form, and list the notices and deadlines already running. That is an hour of work - considerably cheaper than arbitration.
GAFTA 49 is not "standard terms, safe to skip". It is the complete rulebook of an FOB delivery: vessel, extension, default, weighing, sampling and arbitration. Read the current edition before signing, not after the first claim.