Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for Croatian brands

Euro and Schengen since 2023

Croatia adopted the euro on 1 January 2023 at 7.53450 kuna per euro and joined the Schengen area the same day; checks at the land and sea borders with Slovenia, Hungary and Italy ended that day and air-border checks on 26 March 2023. For an importer the effect is simple: goods released for free circulation at Koper, Trieste or Rijeka move to Zagreb by truck with no customs stop, and invoices on the Croatian side are in euro.

25% VAT

Croatia’s VAT Act sets the standard rate at 25%, and clothing has no reduced rate; the Tax Administration lists rates of 0%, 5%, 13% and 25%. It is one of the highest standard rates in the EU, charged at import on the duty-inclusive customs value and reclaimed by a registered importer as input tax, and charged again at the till. Because the rate is high, the retail price is more sensitive to the landed cost than in most member states, which is an argument for a DDP quote that fixes duty, freight and VAT as separate, known lines.

Labels in Croatian, Latin script

Article 6(2) of Croatia’s Consumer Protection Act requires product information to be clear, visible and legible and written in the Croatian language and Latin script, with other languages allowed alongside; Article 6(1) requires the name and address of a manufacturer or importer established in the EU. Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 adds the fibre composition in the official language, so the sewn-in label carries fibre content and care instructions in Croatian.

• Fibre composition by percentage, in Croatian
• Care instructions in Croatian, as symbols with text
• Country of origin: Bangladesh
• Name and address of the EU manufacturer or importer, and the EU responsible person
• Slovene, German or Italian alongside for a label shared across the region

Rijeka Gateway, AGCT and the Koper alternative

Rijeka has two container terminals. The Adriatic Gate Container Terminal, run by ICTSI, passed 400,000 containers in 2024, its record, and handled 342,628 in the first nine months of 2025, up 12%. Rijeka Gateway, built by APM Terminals and the Enna Group for €380 million, took its first vessel on 10 September 2025 and opened officially on 29 October 2025 with a 400 m quay, 20 m of water depth, capacity for 650,000 containers a year and vessels of up to 18,000 TEU; a second phase takes the quay to 680 m and capacity above one million. The Ocean Alliance’s Asia–Adriatic service calls at Rijeka, Koper and Trieste in its 2026 rotation. The weak point is inland: only about a quarter of port cargo moves by rail, and the lowland railway to Zagreb is due by 2036, so most containers travel the 160 km to Zagreb by truck. Koper, 100 km further west across an open Schengen border, is the alternative when a sailing suits it better. Cargo from Chattogram transships in Asia onto an Adriatic service; we state the routing and the ship date on each order.

• Rijeka Gateway: 20 m depth, 650,000 TEU a year, ships to 18,000 TEU, opened October 2025
• AGCT: the established terminal, over 400,000 TEU in 2024
• Koper: an alternative Adriatic port, one truck leg across an open border
• Air freight into Zagreb when a reorder cannot wait

A market with a season

Croatia recorded 21.8 million tourist arrivals and 110.1 million overnights in 2025, up 2% and 1% on 2024, with 104.6 million of those overnights on the Adriatic coast; Germany alone accounted for 22.3 million overnights, followed by domestic visitors, Slovenia, Austria and Poland. For a clothing brand that means demand for beachwear, resort wear, tees and caps concentrated in a few months, sold to customers from a dozen countries, and a supply calendar that must land stock before the season rather than during it. Sea freight from Chattogram takes roughly 22 to 30 days to an Adriatic port before customs, so a summer range is ordered in winter; the order confirmation carries the ship date the factory has committed to, and a top-up mid-season goes by air.

Textile waste: collected already, producer fees from 2028

Croatia’s Waste Management Act of 2021 already lists textiles and footwear among the fractions municipalities must collect separately, ahead of the EU-wide obligation of 1 January 2025. The country generates about 12 kg of textile waste per person a year and collects about 1.4 kg of it separately, against an EU average of 16 kg and 4.6 kg; about 12,000 tonnes were collected separately in 2024, and 79% of textile waste is landfilled. The revised Waste Framework Directive, in force since 16 October 2025, requires a textile and footwear producer-responsibility scheme in every member state by April 2028, and Croatia’s environment ministry has said the Croatian scheme will apply from then. No Croatian act has been published yet, so we do not describe fees; we record the garment weight and quantity per style on every order file so the first declaration can be made from records.

Working with us from Croatia

For a Croatian order we prepare the label in Croatian and Latin script and the REX statement for duty-free entry. Tell us the date the goods must be on the shelf before the season: everything else in the plan, from sampling to the choice between Rijeka and Koper, is worked back from it.