Selling into Türkiye through distributors

How the market buys

Turkish public procurement is governed by the Public Procurement Law No. 4734 of 2002. It created the Public Procurement Authority (Kamu İhale Kurumu, KİK), an autonomous public body based in Ankara that oversees how the law is applied (Article 53). KİK runs EKAP, the Electronic Public Procurement Platform, on which notices, tender submission, evaluation, contracts, result notification and complaints can be handled in whole or in part (Additional Article 1). Thresholds and monetary limits are updated by KİK every year with effect from 1 February (Article 67).

In supply tenders, the documents must be prepared in Turkish. In tenders open to foreign bidders, all or part of the documents may also be issued in other languages, but the Turkish text prevails (Goods Procurement Implementing Regulation, Article 11).

The law leans towards local supply. Under Article 63, tenders below the thresholds may be limited to domestic bidders — Turkish citizens and companies established under Turkish law. In supply tenders, bidders offering domestic goods (yerli malı), proven by a domestic goods certificate, may get a price advantage of up to 15%; for medium- and high-technology goods on a list announced by KİK, the 15% advantage is mandatory. Where the tender documents provide for it, the advantage is applied when the winning tender is chosen (Article 40). A July 2026 amendment, Additional Article 13, authorises the President to extend these advantages, by country or product and on the basis of reciprocity, to bidders established in EU member states and to goods of EU origin; as of October 2026 we could not confirm that any such decision has been issued.

Some demand is centralised. Under Additional Article 12, the State Supply Office (Devlet Malzeme Ofisi, DMO) buys vehicles, vehicle hire, fuel, medicines, medical supplies and medical devices on behalf of public bodies and may conclude framework agreements, and Article 3(e) exempts from the law's procedures purchases of goods and services listed in DMO's statute made directly from DMO.

Trade in goods with the EU runs through the Customs Union. Decision 1/95 of the EC-Turkey Association Council completed it on 1 January 1996. For products other than agricultural products it abolished customs duties between the parties (Articles 2 and 4), and it required Türkiye to incorporate the EU's instruments on technical barriers to trade (Article 8). In 2016 the European Commission proposed to modernise the Customs Union and extend trade relations to areas such as services and public procurement, but the Council has not yet adopted the negotiating directives.

Lawful first contact

Article 6(1) of Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce allows commercial electronic messages only with the recipient's prior consent. Article 6(2) makes an exception: messages may be sent to merchants (tacir) and tradespeople (esnaf) without prior consent. Under Article 16 of the Turkish Commercial Code, trading companies count as merchants, so a distributor company falls within the exception.

The implementing Regulation on Commercial Communication and Commercial Electronic Messages adds conditions. Anyone who wants to send commercial electronic messages must register with İYS, the message management system (Article 5). Before relying on the merchant exception, the sender must record the merchant's address in İYS and check there whether it has exercised its right to refuse (Article 6); once a merchant has refused, messages need its consent. These İYS rules have applied since 16 January 2021. Under the Law, each message must identify the sender and give contact details and the subject (Article 7), and the recipient must be able to refuse easily and free of charge; the sender then stops within three working days (Article 8).

Two points remain unclear. The exception covers the addresses of merchants; whether a named employee's own address counts is not spelled out, so use the company's general address. And the rules are written for Turkish-registered senders: the regulation's identification rule refers to the MERSİS registry number, and İYS registration asks for a tax identification number. As of October 2026 we could not confirm how a sender registered abroad complies. If that is not practical for you, open with a letter in Turkish, the sector's trade fair or an introduction; once a distributor has asked you to write, the correspondence is no longer unsolicited.

What local distributors expect

Before taking on a new range, Turkish distributors will want:

• Turkish-language documentation. Under Law No. 7223 on Product Safety and Technical Regulations, the manufacturer must ensure that safety information and assembly, use and maintenance instructions are in Turkish (Article 7), and distributors must check this before selling (Article 10). Turkish is the state language under Article 3 of the Constitution.
• Conformity evidence. Law No. 7223 requires the technical file, conformity assessment, declaration and conformity marking that the applicable technical regulation prescribes. Under Article 9 of Decision 1/95, once Türkiye has put the EU instruments for a product into force, trade in it follows those instruments; check the Turkish regulation for your category rather than assuming CE marking alone is enough.
• A plan for the price advantage: where a supply tender favours domestic goods, an imported product starts up to 15% behind.
• Clear delivery terms, territory and exclusivity, prices that hold for a framework agreement, and local service and spare parts.

How to enter, step by step

1. Find your categories. Use the Cresques materials reader (brochure PDF or website in, suggested CPV categories out), then translate your product terms into Turkish, the language of tender documents.
2. Find who already wins them. Search EKAP's tender search and the Public Procurement Bulletin for result notices in your categories, and note which companies win.
3. Check central purchasing. See whether your category is bought through DMO — vehicles, fuel, medicines, medical supplies and devices — and read its tender notices. DMO's supplier pre-registration starts with a Turkish tax identification number.
4. Check the domestic price advantage. Read the tender documents in your category for a price advantage for domestic goods, and price your offer to the distributor with it in mind.
5. Prepare Turkish documentation and conformity evidence. Turkish-language instructions and safety rules, and the conformity file and marking the Turkish technical regulation for your product requires.
6. Make the first contact lawfully. E-mail the distributor's general address only if you have registered with İYS, recorded the address there and checked it has not refused; otherwise write by post in Turkish, meet at the sector's trade fair or ask for an introduction.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring delivery terms, a territory and exclusivity proposal, a price list that works with and without the price advantage, and your documentation pack.
8. Follow up within the rules. Write only where the distributor has not refused, honour any refusal within three working days, and keep watching the Bulletin for new results.

Where the evidence comes from

Under Article 47 of Law No. 4734, public bodies report the results of their works, supply and service procurements to KİK within 15 days at the latest, and KİK publishes the results of tenders under the law in the Public Procurement Bulletin (Kamu İhale Bülteni), which it must issue in print and electronically and which its website links to on EKAP. DMO's purchases under Additional Article 12 remain subject to result notification.

These results are published nationally, not on TED, the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU; Law No. 4734 does not require publication there. Cresques reads award notices on TED and does not read EKAP or the Bulletin today. A manufacturer can search them directly. Cresques does not help you bid; the results show who Turkish buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.