Primary origin
Sourcing from Türkiye
Where most of our work happens today — and for a buyer in the Nordics ordering a few hundred units at a time, usually the more sensible answer than Asia.
0%
Customs duty on qualifying industrial goods into the EU
~1week
Typical road transit to a Nordic warehouse
A.TR
The certificate that unlocks duty-free movement
1flight
Close enough to inspect a factory in person
The case for Türkiye
Four reasons it fits smaller orders
1. No customs duty on most industrial goods
The EU and Türkiye have been in a customs union since 1995. In practice this means most industrial and processed goods move between Türkiye and the EU without customs duty, provided the goods qualify and travel with a valid A.TR movement certificate.
You still pay import VAT in your own country, and the exemption does not cover everything — agricultural goods, and coal and steel products, follow separate rules. But for a large share of consumer and industrial products, the duty line on your landed cost is simply zero.
2. Transit measured in days
Road freight from the Turkish manufacturing regions to a Nordic warehouse typically takes about a week. Compare that with four to seven weeks by sea from China and the working-capital difference becomes obvious: your money is tied up in goods on a truck for days rather than on a vessel for over a month.
It also changes how you can trade. A one-week replenishment cycle lets you reorder a fast-moving line rather than guessing demand six months out.
3. Lower minimum orders, more often
Turkish manufacturers are frequently willing to run smaller batches than their Chinese equivalents, particularly in textiles, home goods and furniture. This is not a universal rule and depends heavily on the factory and the product — but as a working generalisation, the quantity at which a supplier stops replying to a small buyer is lower in Türkiye.
4. Close enough to actually visit
A factory audit in Türkiye is a short flight and a day on the road. That proximity is why our regional managers can stand in a production hall and look at your goods before they ship, rather than relying on photographs sent by the person selling to you.
Paperwork
The A.TR certificate, briefly
The A.TR movement certificate is the document that proves goods are entitled to move under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union. Without a correct A.TR, your customs authority has no basis to apply the duty-free treatment and will charge duty as though the goods came from any other third country.
It is issued in Türkiye, on the export side. Getting it right is the supplier's job and our job to verify — and it is one of the specific things we check before a shipment leaves, because a missing or incorrectly completed certificate turns a zero-duty import into an unexpected bill.
Note: the A.TR proves entitlement to Customs Union treatment, which is not the same thing as a certificate of preferential origin such as EUR.1. Which document you need depends on the product. We confirm it per order.
Considering Türkiye for a product?
Tell us what it is and roughly how many you need. We will come back with whether Turkish manufacturing is a good fit — and if it is not, where you should be looking instead.