Clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh for Polish brands

Import duty and 23% import VAT on clothing from Bangladesh in Poland

Poland applies the EU’s customs rules, so a garment made in Bangladesh enters at 0% duty under Everything But Arms when the shipment carries a valid REX statement on origin. TARIC, the EU’s tariff database, checked on 25 September 2026, gives 0% for Bangladesh under the scheme and a third-country duty of 12% on a men’s knitted cotton shirt or polo shirt (6105 10 00). How the origin statement works, how the customs value is built from the price plus freight to the first EU port, and what changes after the transition ends, are on our guide for EU brands.

Import VAT is Poland’s own addition. The standard rate is 23%, set by article 146ef of the VAT Act, and clothing carries it. Article 30b of the Act makes the base the customs value plus any duty, and adds the commission, packaging, transport and insurance costs up to the first destination in Poland when they are not already in the customs value. Under the standard route the VAT is worked out on the customs declaration and paid within 10 days of customs telling you the amount, then deducted in the JPK_V7 return.

An active VAT payer can instead settle the import VAT in the JPK_V7 return for the month of import under article 33a, so the tax is declared and deducted in the same return and no cash leaves the company. The conditions are certificates issued no more than six months before the import, or sworn statements to the same effect, that the company’s arrears with ZUS and the tax office do not exceed 3% of the amounts due, confirmation of active VAT registration, and customs declarations lodged through a customs agent as direct or indirect representative, unless the company holds AEO status or a simplifications authorisation. Whichever route you use, VAT on goods bought for taxable sales is deductible, so for most brands it is a cash-flow cost rather than a final one. A company that is not registered for Polish VAT should ask its adviser before agreeing a delivered price.

Landed cost of a polo shirt from Bangladesh in Poland, per piece: 0% or 12% duty

Take one men’s knitted cotton polo shirt, classified under 6105 10 00 and landed at Gdańsk. The goods value is an illustrative round number, US$8.00 a piece, not a quote and not our price. It is converted through the European Central Bank’s euro reference rates of 24 September 2026, US$1.1367 and PLN 4.3823 to the euro, which give PLN 3.8553 to the US dollar and PLN 30.84 a piece. Sea freight and insurance to Gdańsk are an assumption of PLN 1.75 a piece, about €0.40, not a quote. TARIC, checked on 25 September 2026, gives this code 0% for Bangladesh under Everything But Arms and a 12% third-country duty, which is what the same shirt would pay if Bangladesh had no preference once the transition ends, no earlier than about November 2032.

On 1,000 pieces the preference saves PLN 3,911.07 of duty. An importer that cannot recover VAT pays another PLN 899.55 of VAT on the higher base, so the gap at the quay is PLN 4,810.62. A VAT-registered importer recovers the VAT, so its cost at the quay is PLN 32.59 a piece at 0% duty and PLN 36.50 at 12%.

The table stops on the quay in Gdańsk. The customs agent’s fee, terminal handling and the truck to your warehouse come on top, and the transport and handling up to the first destination in Poland also go into the VAT base. Polish customs converts a US dollar invoice at the monthly customs rate rather than the daily rate used here, so the declared figures will differ slightly; our guide for EU brands explains that rate. Our landed cost calculator adds freight, insurance, duty and clearance to your own price per piece, leaving VAT out; confirm the final numbers with your customs agent.

Shipping clothing from Bangladesh to Gdańsk or Gdynia

Poland’s two main container ports sit side by side on the Bay of Gdańsk. The Port of Gdańsk handled 80.4 million tonnes in 2025 and nearly 2.8 million TEU of containers, 23% more than in 2024, of which 2,766,475 TEU passed through the deep-water Baltic Hub terminal; the port describes itself as a key transport hub for Central and Eastern Europe. Gdynia passed 1 million TEU for the first time in 2025, up 5.27%, on 25.7 million tonnes of cargo. Both sets of figures come from the ports’ own results published on 29 January 2026. Forwarders’ published transit estimates from Chattogram to Europe are on our logistics and shipping page.

Goods for Poland can also land at Hamburg, Bremerhaven or Rotterdam and move on by road or rail. Two things change: the customs value ends at that German or Dutch port, as the EU guide explains, and the country that releases the goods for free circulation is the one whose customs agent, import VAT rules and trade statistics apply, so clothing for Polish shops cleared in Germany appears in Eurostat as a German import from Bangladesh. Tell your forwarder before the first booking whether the goods are to be released in Poland, because the article 33a settlement above only applies to an import declared in Poland.

Poland is also where many brands hold stock for the region. The Polish Investment and Trade Agency, citing AXI IMMO, put Poland’s modern warehouse space at 34.5 million square metres in 2024, the largest in Central and Eastern Europe and more than the Czech Republic and Slovakia combined, with 5.8 million square metres leased that year and rents of €4 to €5.50 per square metre a month in modern centres, with rates in Germany and France sometimes 30 to 40% higher. A brand that serves the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Baltic states or eastern Germany from one Polish warehouse clears once in Gdańsk or Gdynia and distributes by road; goods moving on to another member state need no further customs clearance, but each country’s own labelling and producer-responsibility rules still apply.

For start-ups and small brands in Poland: minimums and the first order

Our own orders start at 500 pieces per style and colour, which is also the minimum for T-shirts and hoodies. Denim, jackets, woven shirts, workwear and uniforms start at 2,000; underwear at 5,000 pieces and socks at 5,000 pairs; for every other category the exact minimum is confirmed on your quote. Orders below 500 pieces go through the small-run route on our low MOQ page, made by our sister factory and priced separately by it.

For a Polish start-up the fixed costs of a first import are small and known: an EORI number, the BDO entry at PLN 200 for a micro-enterprise, and 23% import VAT, handled as described above. Duty is 0% under Everything But Arms with a REX statement on origin. Have the Polish label wording ready before sampling, because the fibre composition and consumer information must be in Polish. What a first order needs, and what the quote states in writing, is on our guide for EU brands.

• Minimum: 500 pieces per style and colour, higher in some categories
• EORI number, BDO entry and Polish VAT registration before the first shipment

BDO registration and packaging reports for a Polish importer

Poland runs a central database on products, packaging and waste management, BDO. Its register covers anyone who places products in packaging on the Polish market for the first time, which includes an importer bringing clothing in from outside the EU, and the entry must be obtained before the activity starts. Applications go through the BDO system online, and the marshal of the voivodeship has 30 days to process a complete application. The registration fee is PLN 200 for a micro-enterprise and PLN 800 for other companies, and the same amount is due as an annual fee by the end of February in every year after the year of registration. Companies that pay the fee must print their BDO registration number on invoices and other commercial documents. The government’s business portal puts the administrative fines for operating without an entry at PLN 5,000 to PLN 1,000,000.

Once registered, the company files an annual report on the packaging it placed on the market, by material and mass, through BDO by 15 March for the previous year, and a company that fails to reach the required recycling levels pays a product fee calculated per packaging type. The EU packaging regulation that applies from 12 August 2026 is covered on our guide for EU brands.

• BDO entry before the first shipment: PLN 200 or PLN 800, decided within 30 days
• BDO number on invoices and commercial documents
• Annual packaging report through BDO by 15 March
• Packaging weights per style on every packing list

Clothing labels for Poland: fibre composition and consumer information in Polish

Fibre names and percentages follow the EU textile regulation, which requires them in the official language of the country of sale, so in Polish; the EU fibre names and the importer details that EU product safety rules require are on our guide for EU brands. Poland adds a general rule in its Act on the Polish Language, consolidated text of 21 January 2026. In consumer transactions on Polish territory, product names, offers, warranty terms, invoices, warnings and consumer information required by other rules, instructions and information about a product’s properties must be in Polish (articles 7 and 7a), and a foreign-language description must be accompanied by a Polish version. Warnings and product information given in a commonly understood graphic form, such as care symbols, need no Polish text, but any words placed next to the symbols do (article 7a(3)). Compliance is policed by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), the Trade Inspection and county consumer ombudsmen (article 7b).

• Fibre composition in Polish, using the EU fibre names
• Product name, warnings and consumer information in Polish (Act on the Polish Language, articles 7 and 7a)
• Care symbols, which need no Polish text when shown as symbols alone
• Importer name and contact details and a batch or style number, under the EU product safety rules on our EU guide
• EU size

Bangladesh’s share of Poland’s clothing imports: 30.8% in 2025, level with China

Eurostat’s Comext database, which records Poland’s imports from outside the EU by country of origin, shows €5.09 billion of clothing (HS chapters 61 and 62) in 2025, 14.2% more than in 2024. China supplied €1.566 billion and Bangladesh €1.565 billion, 30.8% each, with China ahead by about €1 million. Türkiye followed at 9.2%, India at 6.6%, Pakistan at 4.0% and Vietnam at 2.8%. In 2024 Bangladesh had been the largest supplier, at 33.8% against China’s 27.6%; imports from Bangladesh grew 4.1% in 2025 while those from China grew 27.2%.

Bangladesh leads in Poland’s basics: 64.0% of non-EU imports of cotton T-shirts (6109 10), 60.6% of men’s cotton trousers and shorts (6203 42, the heading that includes jeans), 53.1% of women’s cotton trousers and shorts (6204 62) and 33.5% of cotton jumpers and sweatshirts (6110 20). Counting EU suppliers too, Poland imported €16.83 billion of clothing in 2025, and Bangladesh’s €1.57 billion was 9.3% of it. Provisional figures for January to June 2026 show imports from Bangladesh 5.2% lower than a year earlier in euros, while non-EU clothing imports fell 2.3% and those from China rose 8.0%.

Seen from Bangladesh, the Export Promotion Bureau puts Poland at US$1.87 billion in FY2025–26, up 9.80%, the fastest growth among Bangladesh’s EU markets above US$1 billion. The two sources measure different periods in different currencies, and Eurostat counts an import where it clears customs, not where it is sold. Poland’s own trade agency notes that Polish clothing and footwear companies are increasing their presence in Bangladesh to source there.

Where the Polish textile EPR law stands

Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment says on its textiles page that preparatory work is under way to meet the EU deadline of 17 June 2027 for national law, and, according to the employers’ confederation Lewiatan on 28 August 2026, it has finished its impact assessment and planned to send the draft law to public consultation in the third quarter of 2026. The assumptions published so far tie the fee to a product’s reusability, repairability and recyclability, add reporting duties, and reach beyond manufacturers to retailers with shops over 100 m², chains over 1,000 m² in total, and e-commerce platforms, which would have to collect used textiles. Separately, municipalities have had to collect textiles, clothing and footwear separately since 1 January 2025.

Until the law is passed, nothing is registrable; the obligation that exists today is the BDO registration described above. The data the scheme will need, fibre composition and weight per style, is the data to ask for on the packing list of every order. The EU directive behind the scheme is on our guide for EU brands.

Working with us from Poland

Bangladesh is four hours ahead of Poland in summer and five in winter. Sea freight from Chattogram usually lands at Gdańsk or Gdynia, or at Hamburg for onward road haulage.

• Factory named before production, with its address, audit report and Accord status
• Polish fibre-composition label and importer details approved on the pre-production sample
• Fibre composition and garment weight per style for the coming EPR return: ask for them on the packing list
• BDO registration before the first shipment, which is yours to do
• Quality checks on the line and the AQL final inspection report, then invoice, packing list, transport document and origin statement