The three layers
At the top sit a handful of importers of record, mostly in the Northeast, Texas and California, who register with the FDA, file entries and hold the inventory. Below them, regional Turkish and Middle Eastern food wholesalers deliver cases to groceries, restaurants and bakeries on a weekly route. At the bottom, the grocery sells the tablet, the lokum box and the dragée bag to the family that walks in. The same carton passes through all three, which is why the shelf price is what it is.
What the shelf already has
The national Turkish brands: tablets, wafers, biscuits, boxed lokum, halva. The importers have carried them for years and the wholesalers know their sell-through. That part of the shelf is settled, and we are not the route for it. Brand lines are sourced on request; they are not our focus.
What it usually lacks
The Gaziantep lines that have moved beyond the diaspora: the filled bar with pistachio cream and kadayif, pistachio cream cups, the 30 per cent pistachio spread, pistachio-coated dragées, special lokum with a pistachio or kadayif coating. These come from smaller regional producers without an export desk, which is why they reach the US late or not at all. An importer or a large wholesaler that wants them needs one counterparty who can put several producers’ lines into one container with one document set. That is the service: we are an export company, not the factory, and we name the producer of every line.
How a second source works in practice
The importer keeps its first source for the national brands and adds a Gaziantep container two or three times a year for the specialty lines. Each line has its own pallet, minimum, data sheet and tariff heading in the offer; the producer’s FDA registration data goes to the broker for the prior notice; the loading photographs go to the importer before the container leaves Mersin. Wholesalers who are not importers of record can still initiate the order and route it through their importer.
What the wholesaler asks before listing a line
Route wholesalers ask three things of a new line: does it sell by the case at the grocery, does it hold on an ambient truck in July, and is the label compliant so that the grocery does not have to relabel. The Gaziantep lines answer differently. The spread jar and the dragée pack sell steadily and travel well; the cocoa-butter bar needs summer care; every line arrives with the producer’s data for a US label that the importer approves before printing.
What to send
The lines you cannot get or get late, the formats, the quantities you have in mind and the port or warehouse. Within two working days you receive a written offer in US dollars, FCA Gaziantep, FOB Mersin, CIF or DAP. Payment by bank transfer in two halves, the second against the loading photographs; samples first, free from running production, courier at your cost. Prices are not published on the site.
Do you sell to a single Turkish grocery?
No. The unit is a container to an importer or a large wholesaler; a grocery buys from its wholesaler. We can tell a grocery which layer to ask.
Do you carry the national Turkish brands?
They are sourced on request. Our focus is the Gaziantep specialty lines that the existing importers rarely carry.
Can a wholesaler that is not an importer of record order a container?
Yes, by routing it through its importer, who files the entry and prior notice. The offer and the documents are prepared for that arrangement.
