Sworn Translation in Malatya

The paperwork that travels with a crate of apricots

The defining strand in the translation requests that come from Malatya is food exports, and that puts the work in a different place from other provinces. In dried fruit exports the document accompanying the goods matters as much as the goods themselves: the food authority of the buyer country wants to see the analysis report, the health certificate, the certificate of origin and the label information in its own language or in one it accepts. These documents carry figures such as sulphur content, moisture value, batch number and harvest year, and none of them can be interpreted, rounded off or converted into other units. Getting a figure wrong is not merely a translation error; it means the consignment waiting at the port, or even the batch being rejected. Contracts from the textile and food industries call for the same care.

What is inside the export file

The typical package a Malatya exporter sends us looks like this: analysis and laboratory report, food safety certificates, packaging and label copy, the sales contract signed with the buyer, payment and letter of credit correspondence, and sometimes a promotional file prepared for a trade fair. Label copy is a heading of its own: allergen warnings, storage conditions and the ingredient list have to be written in set forms laid down by the legislation of the buyer country, and free translation is not accepted. Alongside this there is a steady flow of personal documents: civil registry records for relatives abroad, powers of attorney, diploma and recognition files, medical reports.

The four mistakes we see most often in export files are these:

• Batch and lot numbers not matching between the certificate and the invoice, which makes it impossible to reconcile them at customs.
• Units of measurement being “adapted” to the buyer country, when the value on the certificate has to stay exactly as it is.
• The company name being abbreviated on one document and written out in full on another, which makes it look as though two different parties are involved.
• Allergen and storage wording in the label copy being translated freely, which breaks the form the legislation requires.

The trade behind the demand for Arabic and English

In Malatya’s dried fruit exports the Middle Eastern and Gulf markets have long been an important group of buyers, and in those countries customs, the food authority and the distribution channel all work in Arabic. Sending the certificate in English is often not enough; the buyer wants the copy it will submit to its own authority to be in Arabic. On top of that come the school, civil registry and residence papers of Arabic-speaking families settled in the region, so the demand for the language has both a commercial and an administrative leg. English, for its part, comes into play as the default language when working with buyers in Europe and beyond, with laboratory reports and with international standard texts. The per-page rate for both languages is set out plainly on the languages page.

Waiting for a shipment need not mean waiting on the road

In the export business translation is almost always squeezed into a timetable: the container is booked, the customs appointment is made, the letter of credit period is running. Against a picture like that, carrying a document to Ankara and back by hand is the most expensive time you could lose. With us the process runs entirely remotely: you upload the file, the price and the delivery date appear at once, the sworn signature and, where required, notarisation are completed at our office in Ankara Kızılay, and the electronically signed copy reaches your inbox the same day. Where the buyer or customs asks for a wet-signed copy, the original reaches your address by courier. We have no branch in Malatya; that is why at no stage do we ask you to come to an address.

Consistency in recurring work

For an exporter, every shipment means a fresh copy of the same documents. It is possible to turn that repetition to your advantage: we keep the terms and set phrases you have already approved and use the same ones in later files. The buyer then sees the same text with every batch and no needless questions arise. You can start by uploading your first file to the quotation form, and see which service covers certificate and contract translation on the services page.

This page is for general guidance; courier times can vary with distance and with the carrier’s schedule. Settling the form the institution requires at the outset spares you the work of doing it all again later.