Exporting organic products to Turkey

Türkiye is a major organic exporter and a demanding organic importer. A foreign organic certificate does not stand on its own here — imported product must be re-certified by a body the Ministry has authorised.

1) Mandatory organic standards and labels

The governing law is Organic Farming Law No. 5262 and the Regulation on the Principles and Implementation of Organic Farming, which has been amended repeatedly. The competent authority is the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, through its General Directorate of Plant Production.

Article 3 of Law 5262 makes organik, ekolojik and biyolojik legally equivalent and protected, along with derivatives such as org. and eko. Using any of them on uncertified product is an offence.

The national logo

There is a national organic logo set out in the Regulation's annex, and its use is mandatory for organic products placed on the Turkish domestic market. Labels must be in Turkish.

The logo is closed to finished imports. It may not be used on imported, finally-packed product. It may be used where an imported semi-processed input is finally processed or packed in Türkiye — which is a meaningful route if you are supplying an ingredient rather than a retail pack.

2) Important voluntary standards and labels

EU organic, USDA NOP, JAS, Bio Suisse, Naturland and Demeter — widely held by Turkish exporters, and relevant to the destination market rather than to Türkiye itself.
BRCGS, IFS and GLOBALG.A.P. — buyer schemes, not organic standards, but usually required alongside.

Do not confuse it with İyi Tarım Uygulamaları (Good Agricultural Practices), a separate national scheme with its own mandatory-format logo. It is not organic, and the two marks are easily mistaken for one another on Turkish packaging.

The sector association is ETO, the Ecological Farming Organisation Association, bringing together producers, exporters and academics.

3) Approved certification and control bodies

Certification is carried out by yetkilendirilmiş kuruluşlar — bodies individually authorised by the Ministry and given a TR-OT code. Operating bodies include ETKO, CTR, USB Certification, Başak Ekolojik, Mithracert, Kayos and Ecocert Türkiye. The authoritative list, with each body's scope, is published by the Ministry.

Türkiye does not accept a foreign organic certificate on its own for its domestic market. Imported organic goods must be inspected and re-certified by a Ministry-authorised Turkish control body before they can be sold as organic. This puts Türkiye in the same category as China and Brazil rather than with the EU or the US.

4) Import requirements

Importing into Türkiye

The importer applies to a Ministry-authorised control body, giving the lot quantity, origin and product type, together with the supplier's certificate and annual inspection report.
The product is inspected against Turkish organic legislation and re-certified.
Labels must be in Turkish and cannot bear the Turkish organic logo.
After sale, the importer reports to its control body within fifteen days — sales volume, invoice, shipping documents and stock report.

Exporting from Türkiye to the EU

Türkiye is one of the largest organic suppliers to the EU — historically around 7% of EU organic agri-food imports, led by sultanas, dried figs, apricots and hazelnuts from the Aegean region.

Türkiye is not on the EU's recognised third-country list. It has no organic equivalence or mutual recognition arrangement with the EU. Turkish exports travel on Article 46 control body certification — around twenty-one bodies hold TR-BIO codes — plus an electronic Certificate of Inspection in TRACES.

The older equivalence route for control bodies closed at the end of 2024, and the remaining third-country equivalences expire at the end of 2026. From 2027 the only routes into the EU are Article 46 compliance certification or a bilateral organic trade agreement, which Türkiye does not have.

For an exporter selling into Türkiye, the practical planning point is lead time: budget for a full inspection and re-certification cycle by a Turkish authorised body before your first consignment, not after it lands.

5) Further information

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry — organic farmingThe regulation, the national logo and the list of authorised control bodies.
Ministry — organic import and export procedureThe official process for importing organic product into Türkiye and exporting from it.
Mevzuat — Turkish legislation portalAuthentic texts of Law 5262 and the implementing regulation.
ETO — Ecological Farming Organisation AssociationThe Turkish organic sector association.

Last reviewed: 2026-09-06