How to Export Georgian Products to the EU (DCFTA Guide)

The EU is a 450-million-consumer market on Georgia's doorstep, and the DCFTA lets your goods enter duty-free. The catch is the paperwork. One wrong EUR.1 or a missing food certificate and your shipment sits at the border with the duty-free benefit gone. This is the full, ordered process to export Georgian products to the EU, with worked examples for wine, hazelnuts, mineral water, and textiles.

Quick Summary:

• Under the DCFTA (in force since 1 July 2016), Georgian-origin goods enter the EU with zero customs duty. The main exception is garlic, capped by an annual tariff-rate quota.

• To get duty-free treatment your goods must originate in Georgia: either wholly obtained here, or with enough processing under Pan-Euro-Med rules.

• Proof of origin is an EUR.1 movement certificate (issued by the Revenue Service, valid 4 months) or, for consignments up to EUR 6,000, a simple origin declaration on the invoice.

• Ship above EUR 6,000 regularly? Apply for approved-exporter status so you can self-certify origin on every invoice without a per-shipment EUR.1.

• Food and agri-food face EU standards: HACCP, traceability, an approved establishment, and an export certificate via the National Food Agency's Single Window. Industrial goods need self-declared CE marking and a technical file.

• Core document set: export customs declaration, commercial invoice, packing list, proof of origin, transport docs, plus product-specific health or conformity certificates.

What the DCFTA means for your exports

The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area is the part of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement that opens the European market to Georgian goods. The agreement was signed in 2014 and entered into force on 1 July 2016. It removes customs duties on effectively all industrial goods and most agricultural products, which is the difference between competing on price in Europe and being priced out by tariffs.

The deal is a trade-off. You get free market access in exchange for meeting EU rules on origin, product safety, and labeling. Those rules are the rest of this guide.

A few exceptions are worth knowing up front. Garlic enters under an annual tariff-rate quota rather than fully duty-free, and an entry-price system applies to a handful of fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, courgettes, and peaches. For most Georgian exports, though, the duty is zero.

There is also a domestic tax angle in your favor. Exports from Georgia are VAT zero-rated, so you charge no VAT on the goods you ship out and you can reclaim input VAT. To act as the exporter, you first need a Georgian legal entity, which is why most people start by deciding to register a Georgian company before they ship anything.

Duty-free is not automatic - you must prove origin

Zero duty only applies to goods that originate in Georgia and travel with valid proof of that origin. Present nothing, or present a flawed document, and EU customs charges the normal third-country tariff as if no trade agreement existed.

So before you quote a buyer a duty-free price, you need to be sure of two things: that your product qualifies as Georgian, and that you can prove it on paper. The zero-rating of exports for VAT in Georgia is automatic once you file correctly, but the duty-free treatment at the EU border is not.

Step 1 - Confirm your goods qualify as Georgian origin

Origin is not about where your company is registered. It is about where the goods were made. There are two routes to qualifying as Georgian.

The first is wholly obtained. These are goods entirely produced in Georgia with no imported inputs of concern: grapes grown here, hazelnuts harvested here, mineral water drawn from a Georgian spring, ore mined from Georgian ground. If your product grew or was extracted in Georgia, it qualifies on this basis.

The second is sufficiently processed. This covers goods made partly or wholly from imported materials, where the processing done in Georgia is substantial enough to confer origin. The test is set per product in the product-specific rules in Annex II of Protocol I, the rulebook attached to the trade agreement. These follow the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention, which Georgia acceded to on 1 June 2018. Alternative PEM origin rules have applied between the EU and Georgia since 1 September 2021, adding simplifications you can use alongside the original rules.

A useful feature here is cumulation: materials sourced from the EU or other PEM partner countries can count as Georgian for the origin calculation. That can tip a borderline product over the line.

A quick example. If you import fabric, then cut and sew it into garments in Tbilisi, the finished clothing may qualify as Georgian if that processing meets the rule for the garment's tariff heading. We work through the full textile case later.

You can confirm the test for your exact product through the Ministry of Economy's DCFTA portal on rules of origin, which lists the product-specific requirement for each tariff heading.

Wholly obtained vs sufficiently processed

The cleanest way to see the difference is side by side. Wholly obtained means no non-Georgian inputs of concern, which is the easy case for raw agricultural and mining products. A crate of Georgian-grown hazelnuts, roasted in Georgia, is wholly obtained.

Sufficiently processed means enough transformation that the product changes character. Imported fabric turned into finished garments through cut-make-trim work is the classic case: the input was cloth, the output is clothing, and the tariff classification changes.

One trap to avoid: minimal operations do not confer origin. Repackaging, simple mixing, sorting, or putting up goods for retail sale are not enough on their own. If all you do in Georgia is re-label imported goods, they stay foreign for origin purposes.

Step 2 - Get your proof of origin (EUR.1 or origin declaration)

Once you know your goods originate in Georgia, you need a document that says so. There are two instruments, and which one you use depends mostly on the value of the shipment.

The first is the EUR.1 movement certificate. This is the stamped certificate that proves Georgian origin, issued by the Georgian Revenue Service (customs) on application. It is valid for 4 months from issue and must be presented to the importing EU country's customs within that window. You can use it for a consignment of any value.

The second is the origin declaration, sometimes called an invoice declaration. This is a short prescribed statement that the exporter types directly onto the commercial invoice or another commercial document. Any exporter can use it, with no special status, as long as the consignment value is up to EUR 6,000.

A practical point on the EUR.1: it is a physical stamped document that travels with the shipment, separate from the invoice. Errors void the preference. A wrong tariff heading, a mismatch with the invoice, or an expired certificate can all cost you the duty-free treatment, so it pays to get it right the first time. You will also need somewhere to receive payment, which is why exporters set up a Georgian account early when they open a business bank account.

When to become an approved exporter

If you ship above EUR 6,000 to the EU on a regular basis, the per-shipment EUR.1 becomes a recurring chore. You have two options. You can request a fresh EUR.1 from the Revenue Service for every shipment, or you can apply for approved (authorized) exporter status.

Approved-exporter status is an authorization from the Revenue Service that lets you self-certify origin with an origin declaration on every invoice, regardless of value, with no per-shipment certificate. For a business sending repeat consignments to Europe, this removes a real bottleneck.

It suits regular, high-volume EU exporters rather than one-off shippers. The authorization is granted on application, and customs will expect a track record of correctly determining origin, because you are taking on the job of certifying it yourself. If you want help deciding whether it is worth applying, our tax consulting team handles this kind of setup.

Step 3 - Meet EU product standards and conformity

Duty-free access gets your goods past the tariff. It does not exempt them from EU product rules. Those rules split along one main line: industrial goods versus food.

For industrial and non-food goods, the gateway is CE marking. As the manufacturer, you self-assess your product against the relevant EU directive or regulation, compile a technical file documenting that assessment, sign an EU Declaration of Conformity, and affix the CE mark. The mark is your statement that the product meets EU requirements.

Here is the trap competitors skip. The DCFTA cuts tariffs, but it does not yet include an Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance (ACAA) in force. That means Georgian conformity testing is not automatically accepted in the EU. A Georgian factory still carries full CE responsibility itself: it must build the technical file and declare conformity as any other manufacturer would. Mutual recognition is still being negotiated, so do not assume a Georgian test certificate clears the EU on its own.

On the standards side, Georgia has adopted the large majority of international and European standards, and the national standards body is the channel for EU, CEN, and CENELEC standards. That alignment makes compliance easier, but the CE declaration remains your obligation.

For food and agri-food, an entirely separate regime applies, run through the National Food Agency. We cover that in the next step.

Mineral water and textiles - lighter standards paths

Not every product faces heavy certification, and it helps to see the easy lanes.

Natural mineral water does not need CE marking. It falls under EU food and labeling rules, and the EU separately recognizes natural mineral water sources. The real hurdles are correct labeling and clean bottling and hygiene practice, not a thick certification dossier.

Textiles and apparel also need no CE marking. The obligations here are the EU textile fibre-labelling rules (the composition labels on garments) and REACH, the EU chemicals regulation that restricts certain substances in finished products. That is lighter than the conformity work for machinery or electronics, but it is still real and still your responsibility. Different products take different paths, and knowing which lane you are in saves a lot of wasted effort.

Step 4 - Food and agri-food: the National Food Agency route

Food is the most regulated category, especially products of animal origin. To export food from Georgia to the EU, a producer generally has to clear five things.

First, register as a food business operator with the National Food Agency (NFA), the public-law agency under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture. Second, operate an approved establishment that meets EU hygiene rules. Third, run HACCP-based controls and full traceability across your process. Fourth, for products of animal origin, the country and the specific establishment must be EU-listed under the bloc's equivalency procedure. Fifth, obtain the export health certificate, veterinary for animal products or phytosanitary for plant products, for each consignment.

That export certificate is issued through the National Food Agency and its Single Window, run jointly with the Revenue Service, so the health certificate and the customs paperwork move through one coordinated channel.

Now the point that trips people up. The NFA publishes permit fees that exporters often assume are what they pay to ship to the EU. They are not. Those published fees are for import and transit permits coming into Georgia. EU export approval is a different process built on registration, establishment listing, and the per-consignment export certificate, not a permit you simply buy over the counter.

Worked example - exporting hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are one of Georgia's headline exports, and they carry an extra layer. Georgian hazelnuts sit on the EU's increased-controls list for aflatoxin under Regulation (EU) 2019/1793.

The practical effect is per-consignment. Every shipment needs an official certificate plus an analytical report from an accredited laboratory showing aflatoxin levels within EU limits, issued under the exporting country's competent authority. Consignments also face elevated checks at the EU border, and the check frequency is reviewed periodically based on the country's compliance record.

So a hazelnut exporter's critical path is testing and certification on every single shipment, layered on top of the EUR.1 or origin declaration. Build the lab analysis and certificate into your timeline before you commit to a delivery date.

Worked example - exporting wine

Wine takes a different path again. Georgian wine enters the EU duty-free under the DCFTA, but it must meet EU wine labeling and oenological rules, and it sits inside a protected-name system.

Georgian appellations are protected in the EU as geographical indications under the 2011 EU-Georgia GI agreement, with 18 Georgian wines on the EU protected list. That protects names tied to regions such as Kakheti from misuse, and it is something importers care about.

The practical path is to comply with the Law on Vine and Wine, obtain wine export certification, and label the bottles per EU rules. Note one structural detail: wine-specific certification is handled by the National Wine Agency, which is distinct from the National Food Agency that covers other foods.

Step 5 - Assemble your export documentation

This is where everything comes together. Here is the core document set for an EU-bound shipment.

• Export customs declaration, filed with the Revenue Service. Export from Georgia is exempt from Georgian customs duty and fees.

• Commercial invoice and packing list.

• Proof of origin: the EUR.1 movement certificate, or an origin declaration on the invoice for consignments up to EUR 6,000.

• Transport documents, such as a CMR consignment note for road or an air waybill, plus insurance for some shipments.

• Product-specific paperwork: an EU Declaration of Conformity and CE technical file for industrial goods; an export veterinary or phytosanitary certificate for agri-food; lab analytical reports where required, such as hazelnut aflatoxin testing; and the wine export certificate for wine.

On the EU side, your importer files the import declaration, the Single Administrative Document (SAD), on arrival. The legal basis for the Georgian export side, including the duty exemption, sits in the country's Customs Code.

Because the four worked examples each take a different route, here is how they line up.

Get set up to export the right way

Before any of the paperwork above, you need the foundation underneath it. To export, you need a Georgian legal entity to act as the exporter of record, whether that is an LLC or a registered individual entrepreneur. You need a business bank account to receive payment from your EU buyers. And you need clean accounting, so your VAT-zero-rated exports are filed correctly and your input VAT is reclaimed.

That foundation is exactly what we set up. We handle company formation, the bank account, and the export bookkeeping that keeps your filings correct, so you can focus on the goods and the buyers instead of the admin. If you are weighing up which structure fits, our guides on business structures in Georgia and forming an LLC in Georgia are a good starting point, and smaller producers often look at how to register a micro business first.

If you want the setup handled end to end, get in touch for a consultation and we will map your route to the EU market.

Key Takeaways

• Check your product against the rules of origin first. Confirm it is wholly obtained or sufficiently processed before you promise a buyer duty-free pricing.

• For one-off or small shipments (up to EUR 6,000), put the origin declaration on your invoice. For regular larger shipments, apply for approved-exporter status at the Revenue Service.

• Request your EUR.1 from the Revenue Service early. It is valid only 4 months and must reach EU customs within that window.

• If you export food, start the National Food Agency registration and establishment approval well ahead. It is the longest lead-time item.

• Industrial exporters: build your CE technical file and Declaration of Conformity yourself. Georgian testing is not auto-accepted in the EU yet.

• Set up your company, export bank account, and VAT-correct accounting before your first shipment. Talk to us if you want it done right.

FAQ

Do Georgian products really enter the EU duty-free?

Yes. Under the DCFTA, in force since 1 July 2016, goods that originate in Georgia enter the EU with zero customs duty. The main exception is garlic, which is limited by an annual tariff-rate quota, plus an entry-price system on a few fruits and vegetables. You still must prove Georgian origin to claim the zero rate.

What is an EUR.1 movement certificate and who issues it?

An EUR.1 is the official certificate proving your goods originate in Georgia so they qualify for duty-free EU entry. It is issued by the Georgian Revenue Service (customs) on application. It is valid for four months from issue and must be presented to the importing EU country's customs within that period.

When can I use an origin declaration instead of an EUR.1?

Any exporter can use a simple origin declaration on the invoice when the consignment value is up to EUR 6,000. Above that, you either request an EUR.1 for the shipment or hold approved-exporter status to self-declare. The declaration is a short prescribed statement typed on your commercial invoice.

What is approved (authorized) exporter status and do I need it?

It is an authorization from the Revenue Service that lets you self-certify origin on every invoice regardless of value, without a per-shipment EUR.1. It suits businesses that export to the EU regularly and above EUR 6,000. You apply with a statement and a record of correct origin determination.

Do I need CE marking to export to the EU?

Industrial and many non-food products need CE marking before sale in the EU. As the manufacturer you self-assess conformity, compile a technical file, sign an EU Declaration of Conformity, and affix the mark. Georgia does not yet have a mutual-recognition agreement in force, so Georgian conformity testing is not automatically accepted, and the responsibility is yours.

How do I export food from Georgia to the EU?

You register as a food business operator with the National Food Agency, run an approved establishment with HACCP and traceability, and obtain the required export health certificate per consignment. Animal-origin products additionally need the country and establishment to be EU-listed under equivalency. The veterinary or phytosanitary certificate is issued through the National Food Agency's Single Window.

What extra rules apply to exporting Georgian hazelnuts?

Georgian hazelnuts are on the EU's increased-controls list for aflatoxin, so every consignment needs an official certificate and an accredited-laboratory analytical report showing aflatoxin within EU limits. These face elevated checks at the EU border. Plan testing and certification into every shipment, on top of your EUR.1 or origin declaration.

Can I export Georgian wine to the EU duty-free?

Yes. Georgian wine enters duty-free under the DCFTA, but it must meet EU wine labeling and oenological rules. Georgian appellations are protected in the EU as geographical indications, with 18 Georgian wines on the EU protected list. Wine export certification is handled through the National Wine Agency.

Is exporting from Georgia subject to customs duty or VAT?

No. Exports from Georgia are exempt from Georgian customs duty and fees, and exported goods are VAT zero-rated. You still file an export customs declaration with the Revenue Service. The EU importer separately files the import declaration, the Single Administrative Document, on arrival.

What documents do I need to export to the EU?

At minimum: an export customs declaration, commercial invoice, packing list, proof of origin (EUR.1 or origin declaration), and transport documents. Add product-specific paperwork, an EU Declaration of Conformity for industrial goods, or an export veterinary or phytosanitary certificate and lab reports for agri-food. Missing or incorrect documents can cost you the duty-free preference.

Do I need a Georgian company to export to the EU?

Practically, yes. You need a Georgian legal entity (an LLC or registered sole trader) to act as the exporter of record, plus a business bank account to receive payment. You also want accounting that handles VAT-zero-rated exports correctly. We can set up the company, the account, and the bookkeeping if you want it handled.