Two columns, almost the same money
Import tables are usually lopsided: one heading carries the value, the other is a rounding note. These two are twins by size and opposites by construction — 7,957,605 dollars of chocolate against 7,248,278 dollars of sugar confectionery.
Both come from this country’s own customs declaration rather than partner statistics read backwards, which makes them the firmer kind of figure. The limit is every declaration’s: value and origin, never case weights, unit prices or sell-through.
The chocolate column is a European shelf
Italy 22.0 per cent, an unspecified-areas heading 19.4, France 14.4, Türkiye fifth at 6.29. Familiar supply: branded tablets and boxed lines on routes that have run for years.
No origin holds a quarter of it, which is the part worth acting on. A column whose largest source sits near a fifth is not a settled chain to break open; it is a shelf that already buys from several places and has no reason to refuse another.
The confectionery column is a patchwork
The second heading is assembled from wherever the quote came from that season: the unspecified entry first at 21.2 per cent, China 19.6, Nigeria 12.9, Türkiye tenth at 2.77. A regional neighbour in the top three beside a long-haul volume origin describes a column bought on landed price.
Fragmented columns behave nothing like concentrated ones. No listing is protected, buyers move on format, case weight and delivery date, and a new line need not displace an incumbent — it only has to arrive at a price the column recognises.
The two placings run backwards
Read the ranks together and something looks inverted. The centre of our range — dragées, Turkish delight, jellies and wrapped sweets — is declared under sugar confectionery, where Türkiye is tenth at 2.77 per cent. The better placing, fifth at 6.29, is under chocolate.
In a price-led heading fed by China and Nigeria, a Gaziantep price is a middle price; against Italy and France, the same producers read as the accessible end of a premium shelf. So the chocolate lines open the conversation, and the dragées — the one product signal French search returns in volume here, at 110 a month — ride in on the same container.
A fifth of each column names no country
In both headings the unspecified-areas entry is among the largest: 19.4 per cent of chocolate, 21.2 of sugar confectionery. That is a gap in the record rather than an accusation, and it means the table cannot say where a fifth of what lands here was made.
Our answer is documentary: every line in an offer carries the technical data sheet, the analysis report and the origin document. Certificates are issued for our factory, and we name the holder and the certifying body per line (Ivory Coast).
What to send so a column becomes an offer
The search box will not narrow this for you. Two rounds returned 858 English phrases and 1,606 French; above the threshold that is about 1,050 and 980 a month, of which 0 and 80 carry buying language — one wholesaler request, written four ways at 20 each. The declared table is the better map.
So send a list: the lines you want priced, the format for each — bulk carton, retail box, kilo bag or jar, the jar line being a spread — an indicative quantity, your port of arrival, and whether the pack stays in our standard pack or carries your brand, in which case nothing goes to print without written approval. The reply comes back line by line, quoted FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP; Mersin is about three hours away by road (mixed container).
Türkiye is tenth in sugar confectionery here. Why would you start with the chocolate lines?
Because that is where the placing already is: fifth at 6.29 per cent of a 7,957,605 dollar column, against 2.77 per cent and tenth in the other one. The sugar confectionery heading is bought on landed price, with China at 19.6 and Nigeria at 12.9 per cent. Dragées, Turkish delight and jellies are quoted in the same offer and travel in the same load; they simply do not need to carry the first order on their own.
How reliable are these import figures?
They are this country’s own declared import values for 2024, not a mirror read from what partners say they shipped, so they stand on firmer ground than the figures available for several markets nearby. Two limits are worth stating: a declaration carries no case weights, no unit prices and nothing about sell-through, and roughly a fifth of each column — 19.4 per cent of chocolate, 21.2 of sugar confectionery — is recorded against a heading that names no country of origin at all.
Can both columns travel in one container?
Yes. The minimum is set per line rather than per container, so chocolate lines, dragées, Turkish delight and wrapped confectionery share one load and one document set; chocolate travels in a reefer through the warm months while the dry lines travel dry. Couverture, bulk chocolate by the kilo, raw nuts, dried fruit, cocoa, halva, tahini and baklava sit outside the range and are sourced on request; we confirm composition and format before quoting. The offer states what applies on the day it is issued.
