Origins · Colombia
Medellín.Made in the valley.
A city in a valley of the Andes, and the centre of Colombia's apparel trade. The windbreaker this site follows is made here, and it enters the EU duty-free.
The order: Cut and sewn in the valley.
The windbreaker’s order, quoted landed from a factory in Medellín: goods, freight, duty and fees on one page.
The lane: Cartagena to Rotterdam.
Trucked to the Caribbean, loaded FOB Cartagena, tracked by the carrier the whole way to the North Sea.
The papers: The EUR.1 that makes it zero.
The proof of origin travels with the goods. Without it the jacket pays the full rate.
The valley
A trade that grew up between mountains.
Medellín sits in the Aburrá valley, about 1,500 metres up in the Cordillera Central. The valley’s towns, Itagüí, Envigado and Bello among them, grew around textile mills and garment workshops.
The fairs
Inexmoda holds Colombiatex de las Américas every January and Colombiamoda every July, both at Plaza Mayor in Medellín.
The work
Cut-and-sew for outerwear, activewear, denim and intimates, from full-package factories to specialist workshops.
The people we know
Merco has an operating company in Medellín. It is where we started, and where we meet the factories first.
The route
From the valley to the North Sea.
The example order’s route. The ocean leg is about 20 days on Merco’s planning estimate; the carrier’s own dates replace it once the container is booked.
- 01MedellínCut, sewn, packed and inspected at the factory.
- 02By roadDown from the Andes to the Caribbean coast.
- 03CartagenaLoaded FOB. The export papers and the EUR.1 go with it.
- 04At seaAbout 20 days across the Atlantic, tracked by the carrier.
- 05RotterdamCleared into the EU at the Andean rate.
The border
12% without an agreement. 0% with one.
The EU-Andean Trade Agreement takes the duty on a woven jacket from 12% to zero, if the goods qualify and the EUR.1 movement certificate travels with them. On a $100,000 order that is $12,000 that stays in the price.