Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for Cypriot brands

A small import figure, and why that is the opportunity

Cyprus imported about US$5.6 million of Bangladeshi apparel in 2025, a small number for a country that sells a great deal of clothing to residents and visitors. Part of the reason is how the island buys. A US government guide to the Cypriot market notes that most imports go through agents and distributors, and that a single distributor often represents a supplier in both Cyprus and Greece, and sometimes in Eastern Europe or the Middle East as well. Clothing that reaches a Cypriot shelf has frequently passed through a distributor’s margin on the way.

For a Cypriot brand or retailer, that is the argument for going direct. A buying house places the order in the factory, manages the sample and the inspection, and ships to Limassol, so the price is built from the factory cost rather than from a distributor’s list. It is not the right route for a shop that needs forty mixed pieces next week; it is the right one for a brand ordering its own designs, or a retailer buying basics in volume for the season.

19% VAT, with no reduced rate for clothing

Cyprus’s standard VAT rate is 19%. The reduced rates of 9%, 5%, 3% and 0% cover specified goods and services, and clothing is not among them; unlike the United Kingdom, Cyprus does not zero-rate children’s clothing, so a baby bodysuit carries 19% like an adult’s jacket. A Cabinet decision extended the 0% rate to the end of 2026 for infant milk, nappies, adult incontinence products, feminine hygiene products and fresh fruit and vegetables, which is sometimes misread as covering children’s goods generally; it does not cover clothing.

Labels in Greek

Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 requires the fibre composition to be translated into the official language of each country where a textile is sold to consumers, and the EU’s own guidance for businesses restates that rule. For garments sold in Cyprus the label therefore carries fibre content and care instructions in Greek, with English and other languages allowed alongside; English is widely read on the island, but it does not replace the Greek. We did not find a separate Cypriot textile-labelling law that adds to the EU rule, so we specify against the regulation.

• Fibre composition by percentage, in Greek
• Care instructions as symbols, with Greek text
• Country of origin: Bangladesh
• English alongside, for tourist retail

Limassol: the one door in

Every container bound for Cyprus enters through the port of Limassol, as the US trade guide notes. Eurogate has run the container terminal since 2017 and reports that it sits on the networks of MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk, ONE, COSCO and Evergreen; DP World runs the multipurpose terminal for general cargo, roll-on roll-off traffic and cruise ships. The terminal handled about 215,000 containers in 2022 and more than 250,000 in 2024, according to the Cyprus Mail, with growth of 8 to 9% expected for 2025; those are counts of containers rather than twenty-foot equivalents, so we give them as reported. Its trade is 89% imports and 11% exports, which is what an island that makes little clothing looks like.

Transshipment is not part of Limassol’s current role: the 2017 concession makes no provision for transit trade, and turning the port into a regional transit hub is still a proposal. In practice a container from Chattogram transships at a Mediterranean or Asian hub onto a service calling at Limassol. Air freight into Larnaca takes two to five days before customs for urgent drops.

Packaging: Green Dot Cyprus

Under Law 32(I)/2002 on packaging and packaging waste, any company that imports packaged goods for sale in Cyprus, or sells goods under its own label, carries packaging recovery obligations. It can meet them by joining a collective system such as Green Dot Cyprus, or by running its own system and meeting targets of 60% recovery and 55% recycling itself; either way it reports each year to the Department of Environment. Joining the collective system is the usual route for a brand importing garments in polybags and cartons. Packaging weights by material per style come with our shipping documents, so the annual report to the Department of Environment is filed from figures rather than estimates.

Tourism, and the summer that sells the year

Cyprus recorded 4,534,073 tourist arrivals in 2025, up 12.2% on 4,040,200 in 2024, on the Statistical Service’s figures, with the United Kingdom the largest market at 31.8% of arrivals. For a clothing business that means a season: beachwear, resort wear, tees, caps and promotional clothing for hotels and tour operators, sold between spring and autumn to customers from a dozen countries. Sea freight from Chattogram to the eastern Mediterranean takes roughly 22 to 30 days before customs, so a summer range is sampled in the autumn and produced over the winter, and a mid-season top-up of a style that sells out goes by air.

Textile waste: separate collection now, producer fees by 2028

The Waste Framework Directive has required separate collection of textiles across the EU from 2025, and the revised directive, in force since 16 October 2025, gives every member state 30 months to set up a producer-responsibility scheme for textiles and footwear, so one is due in Cyprus by April 2028. The European Environment Agency puts Cyprus’s municipal recycling rate at 15% in 2022, among the lowest in the union, and a pay-as-you-throw system was due to be fully rolled out during 2025. We found no published Cypriot textile scheme 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 Cyprus

For a Cypriot order we prepare the Greek label, the REX statement for duty-free entry, and the packaging weights your Green Dot report asks for. Hotels, tour operators and event companies ordering branded clothing for the season are as welcome as fashion brands, and they are usually the buyers who gain most from cutting out a distributor.