Guide

Checking a manufacturer in Türkiye before you pay

Lotvela · Gaziantep · Checked 29 October 2026

To check a Turkish manufacturer before you pay, confirm three things in official records: the company exists (Trade Registry Gazette, chamber, tax office), it runs a factory for your product (TOBB capacity report and the Ministry of Industry's registry), and its certificates are live in each issuer's own database. Then see the plant or send an inspector, and choose payment terms that match what you have verified. Many of these records are free to search online, though mostly in Turkish.

The checks at a glance

Check	Where	What it shows
Legal identity	Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi (TOBB)	Registration, address, directors, capital, liquidation, concordat
Chamber membership	The chamber where the company and its factory are located	The company and its plant are registered members
Tax status	Revenue Administration (GİB) online verification	Whether a tax letter the producer sends you is genuine
Real factory	TOBB capacity report; Ministry of Industry registry (LONCA)	An expert saw a working plant; machines, staff, theoretical capacity
Export record	Exporters' association; past export documents	It exports, and what it shipped where
Certificates	The issuer's database (IAF, BRCGS, IFS, FSSC, OEKO-TEX, HAK, TÜRKAK)	The certificate is current and covers the site and product
Financial warning signs	Trade Registry Gazette; ilan.gov.tr	Concordat or bankruptcy proceedings
Product and plant	Lot sample, accredited lab, site visit	Whether the plant can make your order to your specification

1. Confirm the company exists

Ask for the full trade name (ticaret unvanı), trade registry office and number, MERSİS number, tax number (VKN) and tax office, and the address of the factory. Then check them.

MERSİS number. The Ministry of Trade gives every company in the trade registry a unique 16-digit MERSİS number; for a company it is built from its tax number. The MERSİS company search needs a MERSİS login, so it is not an open public search.
Trade Registry Gazette. TOBB publishes the Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi. With a free account (sign up with an e-mail address) you can read announcements back to 1957 and check whether a trade name is registered, and at which registry office and number. Read the company's history: founding, head office, capital, directors, address moves, mergers, liquidation (tasfiye), and concordat or bankruptcy notices.
Chamber. Under Article 9 of Law No. 5174, every registered trader and industrialist, with its branches and factories, must register with the chamber where it is located. Article 26 lets chambers answer written or oral questions about their members' non-confidential records, though not as a statement of commercial reputation. Write to the chamber and ask it to confirm membership, trade name and registered address.
Tax status. The Revenue Administration's Digital Tax Office has a public "Doğrulamalar" (verifications) section. There you can check a taxpayer letter (mükellefiyet yazısı) or tax debt status letter (borç durum yazısı). Ask the producer for recent ones and check them there.

2. Check it is a real factory

The capacity report (kapasite raporu)

A capacity report states a plant's theoretically calculated maximum output. Chambers prepare it and TOBB approves it, under TOBB's procedures No. 2025/53, in force since 28 August 2025. The rules matter, because they tell you what the report proves:

The chamber sends a rapporteur and at least one expert engineer, who must inspect the site in person.
Machines must be installed and working at the visit. At least one production worker must be registered with social security (SGK) at that address.
The report lists the machines and equipment, the staff, raw material needs and production capacity. The expert, the chamber and TOBB sign it electronically.
Machines covered only by a proforma invoice are not counted.
A report cannot be issued to a firm that has its production done by subcontractors (fason).

Read it with its limits in mind. Capacity is calculated for one 8-hour shift, 300 days a year (24 hours and up to 350 days for continuous processes). It is a theoretical maximum, not free capacity: it says nothing about orders already booked. Reports are approved for at most two years, or one year in sectors TOBB names. They are cancelled if the plant moves, is leased out, closes or the company goes bankrupt.

How to verify one. TOBB's procedures make its electronic record the authoritative version. Ask for the report, check that its address and products match what you were told, and ask the issuing chamber to confirm it is valid. Where a city has separate chambers of commerce and industry, the industry chamber issues industrialists' reports. TOBB's public Industry Database (Sanayi Veri Tabanı) lets anyone search a product by PRODCOM or customs (GTİP) code. It shows, province by province, how many firms hold a capacity report for that product and their staff. Total capacity is shown only where more than three firms are registered. Use it to test claims such as "the largest producer in Türkiye".

A firm with no capacity report may be a trader, or may subcontract its production. Both are legitimate, but you need to know which you are dealing with.

The industrial registry (sanayi sicili)

Law No. 6948 requires industrial enterprises to register with the Ministry of Industry and Technology's industrial registry and hold an industrial registry certificate (sanayi sicil belgesi); handicrafts and small repair shops are excluded. The ministry's LONCA site is a public search of these certificates by firm name, product or product code and province, with an English version. A firm's entry shows its registered plant address and the products registered. If the address differs from the one you were given, ask why.

For what each sector makes in one industrial city, see our guide to manufacturing in Gaziantep. Gaziantep has separate chambers of commerce (GTO) and industry (GSO); GSO lists its member firms on its English site.

3. Check the export record

Exporters' association. Article 4 of Law No. 5910 makes membership of the relevant exporters' association compulsory for exporters. In Gaziantep, GAİB hosts four associations: textiles and raw materials, carpets, cereals, pulses and oilseeds, and dried fruit. Its member list can be searched by association, city and trade name. Membership shows that a company exports through the association, not what, how much or where.
Export documents. Ask for redacted copies of recent shipments of your product: customs export declaration, commercial invoice, bill of lading and the movement or origin certificate. Chambers issue or approve A.TR and EUR.1 movement certificates and certificates of origin (Law No. 5174, Article 26).
A.TR for the EU. For industrial goods, the A.TR shows that goods are in free circulation in the EU–Türkiye customs union; customs endorse it. Since 8 July 2024, EU and Turkish customs accept A.TRs issued electronically, and the exporting state's customs must offer an online system to check their authenticity. A producer that already ships to the EU should be able to show you past A.TRs.
References. Ask for two or three buyers in your market and call them. Ask about delivery dates, quality claims and how claims were settled.

4. Verify every certificate at the source

A certificate PDF shows what was true on the day it was issued. Check its current status in the issuer's own records, and check that the scope covers your product and the address of the plant that will make it.

ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and other management systems: search IAF CertSearch, which holds accredited certificates only; if one is missing, ask the certification body. For certificates from bodies accredited by TÜRKAK, Türkiye's accreditation body, TÜRKAK runs a document verification system (TBDS).
FSSC 22000: the FSSC public register lists current certified organisations.
BRCGS: search the BRCGS Directory; a free account lets you validate certificates.
IFS: IFS says certificates can be verified in the IFS Database, which needs a login.
OEKO-TEX: enter the label number in the OEKO-TEX Label Check; label numbers are case-sensitive. OEKO-TEX also lists withdrawn certificates and labels.
Halal: Türkiye's Halal Accreditation Agency (HAK) accredits halal certification bodies and lists each one as active, suspended or withdrawn. Gulf markets keep their own lists. The UAE's Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology keeps a register of halal certification bodies. HAK reports that Saudi Arabia requires halal certificates for various imported foods to come from a body recognised by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). Confirm with your importer which bodies your market accepts.
Test reports: accept reports only from a laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 whose scope lists the test. TÜRKAK is a signatory of the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) agreement for testing.
Food: also ask for the food business registration or approval number from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Our guide to food export documents lists the certificates that travel with each shipment.

5. Look for financial warning signs

A concordat (konkordato) is a court-supervised arrangement between a debtor and its creditors. Under Article 288 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (No. 2004), the court announces a temporary respite in the Trade Registry Gazette and on the Press Advertising Agency's official portal, ilan.gov.tr. It also notifies the trade registry, tax office, customs, local chambers and others. A one-year definitive respite can follow (Article 289). A bankruptcy decision is also announced in the Trade Registry Gazette (Article 166).

A concordat is not bankruptcy, and a company can keep producing during it. It does change your risk: if you pay in advance, you depend on a company in a court process. Search both sites for the trade name, and ask the producer in writing whether it is in any insolvency proceeding.

This is a live issue in some sectors. Ekonomi Gazetesi (press) reported on 25 August 2025 that 22 Gaziantep firms and their managers had applied for concordat in August, "especially" textile companies. On 27 July 2026 it reported court decisions in concordat proceedings for 30 Gaziantep companies and owners, in textiles, food, construction, chemicals, packaging and energy.

Other warning signs:

A request to pay a third party or a personal account. Pay only to an account in the company's registered name.
Bank details changed by e-mail. Confirm any change by phone, on a number you already hold.
Frequent changes of name, address or directors in the Gazette.
A price well below other quotes for the same specification.

6. Samples and the site visit

Ask for a sample drawn from a production lot, not a showroom sample. Record the lot number, keep a sealed counter-sample, and test it in an accredited laboratory against your specification. The approved sample, signed by both sides, becomes the reference in the contract.

On the site visit, check:

Address: the plant is at the address in the capacity report, LONCA and the Gazette.
Machines against your order: count the lines and machines for your product, compare them with the capacity report, and remember it assumes one shift. Ask how much of your production window is already booked.
A running line: see your product type being made, not only finished stock.
Raw materials: stock on site, who supplies it, and how lots are traced to finished goods.
Quality control: the lab, test equipment and calibration records, in-process and final inspection records, and what happens to rejects.
Subcontracting: which steps happen elsewhere. If a critical step is outside, visit that site too.
Packing and storage: packing line, pallets, labelling and warehouse conditions.
Workforce: people on the floor against the staff in the capacity report, which counts engineers, technicians, foremen, workers and administrative staff separately.
Social compliance and safety: working hours, the age of workers, fire exits, machine guarding, and the latest social audit report if your customers require one.
Who you meet: an owner or director named in the Gazette, or someone they have authorised in writing.

7. Contracts and payment terms

How exports registered with GAİB's associations were paid in December 2025:

Payment term	Share	What it means for you
Cash against goods (mal mukabili)	60.9%	You pay after the goods are shipped (open account). The risk sits with the producer, which may not offer this to a new buyer.
Advance payment (peşin)	18.2%	You pay before shipment and carry most of the risk. This is where checks matter most.
Documents against payment (vesaik mukabili)	17.6%	Banks release the shipping documents when you pay. You pay before you see the goods, and banks do not guarantee payment.
Letter of credit (akreditif)	2.8%	A bank pays the producer against documents that comply with the credit. Banks check documents, not goods.

Source: GAİB, Aralık 2025 Ekonomi Bülteni; shares of export value registered with GAİB's associations in December 2025. Deferred letters of credit were a further 0.4% and other methods 0.1%. The same bulletin names CFR (cost and freight) as the most used delivery term.

Incoterms 2020. Write the rule, the named place and the year, for example "FCA Gaziantep Incoterms® 2020". ICC states that Incoterms rules do not deal with title, the specification, payment, remedies or the law and forum for disputes, so the contract must. FOB is for sea and inland waterway transport only; ICC names FCA as the rule for containerised goods.
If a producer asks for an advance, keep it small, tie the balance to shipping documents or an inspection, or use a letter of credit.
Pre-shipment inspection. Name an independent inspection company in the contract. It checks quantity, packing, marks and conformity with the approved sample before you pay the balance. Under a letter of credit, make its certificate a required document.
Claims. Agree in writing how quality claims are raised, tested and settled, and within what time.

8. When a sourcing agent helps, and what to ask one

An agent or intermediary helps when you cannot read Turkish records, cannot visit, or need to compare many mid-size producers. You may not need one if you already know the producers, or if you buy from large mills that sell direct. Whoever you use, ask:

Who pays you, how much, and is the rate the same for every producer you propose?
Do you, or anyone close to you, own or have a stake in any producer on your list?
Does any money pass through you? Paying the producer directly, against its own invoice, avoids one layer of risk.
What exactly did you check, when, and how? Ask for dated evidence, not a "verified" badge.
Do you ask for exclusivity, or stop me from contacting the producer directly?
Is your own company registered? Check it in the same records.

Lotvela is a sourcing intermediary based in Gaziantep. When your brief arrives, we contact and visit the producers that fit it, large or mid-size. We check product fit, a free production window, export record and documents, then send a dated shortlist with every claim marked confirmed or not confirmed. The producer pays a commission at the same rate for every producer; buyers pay nothing. Lotvela is not a trader: the producer invoices and ships, and money never passes through Lotvela. It is new and has no track record yet, so check the key claims yourself as well.

Questions buyers ask

How do I know a Turkish supplier is legit?

Get its full trade name, trade registry number, MERSİS number and factory address. Find its announcements in the Türkiye Ticaret Sicili Gazetesi, and ask its chamber to confirm membership. Check its industrial registry entry on LONCA and ask for its TOBB capacity report. Verify certificates in each issuer's database, and pay only to an account in the company's registered name.

What is a capacity report?

A kapasite raporu is a document prepared by a Turkish chamber and approved by TOBB. It states a plant's theoretical maximum output, machines and staff after an expert engineer has inspected the working site. It is valid for up to two years and is calculated for one 8-hour shift. It does not show free capacity or quality, and firms that subcontract production cannot get one.

Is there an official directory of Turkish manufacturers?

Several official records work as free directories. The Ministry of Industry's LONCA site searches industrial registry certificates by product and province. TOBB's Industry Database shows how many firms hold capacity reports for a product in each province. Exporters' associations such as GAİB publish member lists, and chambers such as GSO list members. Commercial directories carry self-declared profiles, so check every claim.

Do I need a sourcing agent in Turkey?

Not always. If you can read Turkish records, visit plants and compare producers yourself, you can buy direct. An agent helps with language, distance and many mid-size producers. Before using one, ask who pays it, whether the rate is the same for every producer, whether it has stakes in any producer, and whether money passes through it.

Is it safe to pay a Turkish supplier in advance?

Advance payment puts the risk on you, so do it only after the checks above. In December 2025, 18.2% of exports registered with GAİB were paid in advance and 60.9% on cash against goods. Keep any advance small, pay the balance against documents or an inspection, check the Gazette and ilan.gov.tr for concordat notices, and pay only the company's own account.