The first leg is three hours of road
Nothing starts at a port on our side either. The lines you order — chocolate, dragées, Turkish delight, wrapped confectionery, spreads in jars — are made in our Gaziantep factory and loaded as one, and Mersin is about three hours away by road.
On FCA Gaziantep the container is yours at the loading bay. On FOB Mersin that road leg is ours, and the handover happens once the box is on board.
The sea leg stops short of you
From Mersin the box travels by water to a port in a neighbouring country. That is where the sea ends and the last leg begins: a truck or a rail wagon inland, across a border post. It is the same final leg every carton on your shelf already takes.
Because that leg belongs to nobody by default, the offer names it: the port of entry, who carries the inland stretch, and where our responsibility stops. A route settled at a border post instead of on paper is a cost nobody quoted.
Four terms, and which one crosses the border
We quote FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF and DAP, and what separates them is not price but where cost and risk change shoulders. FCA and FOB leave the ocean booking with you, which suits a buyer already running a forwarder into the region.
CIF carries the sea leg to a named port of discharge — still short of you on this route, so it ends at somebody else’s coast, not at your gate. DAP is the term that crosses the border, to a place you name, and the place is named beside whichever term is quoted.
Who declares, and what travels with the goods
The entry declaration is the importer’s, and so is the description it carries; your clearing agent confirms what the file requires on the day. The origin document and the rules that travel with the route are named in the offer in the form valid then, not printed here where they would be stale before your box sails.
Ask your agent early whether the goods move in transit through the port state or are entered there and moved on: that decides which agent handles which stage. From our side you receive the technical data sheet per product, the analysis report per line, our certificates — issued for our factory (
The label is part of the file, and it is in English
Mandatory content is prepared in English from our technical data sheet: the name of thefood, the ingredient list with allergens, metric net weight, storage conditions, the importer’s name and address, and the date marking. For own-label lines nothing is printed before you approve the artwork.
One rule holds at every border on the way: a line coated in vegetable fat is a compound or a glaze on the data sheet, the pack and the price list, never chocolate. The jar line is a spread.
A cold chain booked past the coast, and the list that starts it
The overland leg is where a cold chain quietly ends if it was booked only as far as the water. Chocolate and chocolate-coated lines are quoted in a reefer through the warm months, the booking covering the whole journey, inland haul included. Turkish delight, dragées, jellies and wrapped confectionery travel dry, and both share one box (mixed container) — so the offer states which lines are reefer lines.
Send the lines you want priced, the format and quantity for each, the port of entry and the term you prefer; the written offer follows within two working days. Couverture, bulk chocolate by the kilo, raw nuts, dried fruit, halva, tahini and baklava are outside the range and sourced on request, composition and format confirmed first. Tell us what the first container should carry.
There is no port here. Where does the container actually land?
At a seaport in a neighbouring country, where it is discharged and moved on by road or rail to you. That inland leg is the part worth pinning down in writing, so the offer names the port of entry, who carries the stretch after it and where our responsibility stops. Your forwarder confirms the schedule and the border formalities for the routing you book.
Which delivery term suits a landlocked buyer?
It depends on who you want carrying the inland leg. FCA Gaziantep hands you the container at the loading bay and FOB Mersin at the port, which suit a buyer with a forwarder and a rate already in place. CIF ends at a named port of discharge, which on this route is still short of you. DAP is the one that reaches a place you name inland. The entry declaration stays with you under all four.
Who files the entry, and what is said about duty?
You do: the importer of record is the declarant and answers for the description given, and your clearing agent confirms what applies on the day. The offer names the origin document and the rules that travel with the route in the form valid when it is issued, rather than a figure printed in advance. Our side supplies the technical file, the analysis report and our certificates, issued for our factory.
