Sworn Translation in Tokat

The centre of gravity of the files coming from Tokat is agriculture and food. The work here, though, has less to do with the product itself than with documenting the conditions under which it is produced. Food and livestock farming are two of the most closely inspected sectors; for a business to be able to export, it has to document not just its product but its process as well. What reaches the translation desk is, for the most part, this process documentation.

Documenting the production process

The files that come from food businesses contain plant descriptions, hygiene and cleaning procedures, traceability records, supplier audit reports and product specifications. On the livestock side come holding records, health and vaccination certificates and product analysis results. Because the terms used in these texts are tied to regulation, the equivalent recognised by the receiving country has to be used; a free rendering can make the document invalid.

Contract farming and trade

In areas where agricultural production runs on contract, purchase agreements, price and quality terms and delivery schedules are translated as well. The section watched most closely in these documents is the clauses describing quality tolerances and the grounds for rejection. Since whether the product is accepted or not depends on what is written there, expressions of measure and proportion are carried across to the letter.

Document group	Purpose	Point watched
Hygiene and process procedures	Inspection and export approval	Regulatory terms
Traceability records	Product tracking	Codes and batch numbers
Livestock health certificates	Dispatch and sale	Official document forms
Purchase contract	Contract farming	Quality tolerances
Personal documents	Procedures abroad	Spelling of names and dates

The separate sources of demand for English and German

In Tokat, English is the language of export and inspection files. German comes from somewhere quite different: the province’s family ties reaching into Europe. In practice the two never cross, one comes from the factory, the other from the household. You can see which approval is required for the country your document is going to on the countries page.

Buyer visits and preparing for a trade fair

In the food sector the buyer wants to see the plant before buying the product. These visits bring their own document preparation with them: plant presentation files, production capacity information, product portfolio presentations and visit programmes. What sets these texts apart from technical files is that they have to persuade; the information must be presented in an orderly and readable way as much as it must be correct.

Preparing for a trade fair creates a similar pile-up. Product cards, sample information forms, price lists and stand texts are all wanted together within a short space of time. Having all these files translated with the same set of terms lets the business present a consistent face to the outside world; different names for the same product in different documents cost it the buyer’s confidence.

The correspondence that follows a visit or a fair moves on to a more formal footing: letters of offer, sample dispatch notes, preliminary agreements. At this stage the degree of binding force becomes important, and which part of the text carries a commitment has to stay clear in translation. We settle this distinction together with the client at the start of the work.

With livestock businesses it is document inspection rather than visits that comes to the fore. Holding records, health and vaccination certificates and feed and feeding records are drawn up in official forms, so those forms have to be preserved in translation. A free rendering can lead to the document not being treated as official on the other side.

The correspondence that follows a shipment is a regular item too. In texts about quality complaints, requests for return and late payment, striking a measured tone matters: wording that neither takes on responsibility needlessly nor rejects the claim outright. The tone of these texts has a direct effect on whether the commercial relationship continues.

There is a question of timing as well in the files prepared before a visit: once the buyer has fixed the date, there are usually only a few days left. That is why we deliver work of this kind in parts, and the sections that are ready are sent without waiting for the rest.

Tokat has no branch of ours. The files arrive online, and the translation and the approvals run at the office in Ankara. Since a food business preparing for an inspection has no way of sending anyone out on the road for a translation, this arrangement makes things easier; and because there are usually only a few days left once the buyer has fixed the date of the visit, we deliver the files in parts and do not hold back the sections that are ready.

Settling it without leaving the plant

A food business preparing for an inspection has no way of sending anyone out on the road for a translation. The files are sent in online in a single batch, the page count and the amount are seen in advance, and the translation and the approvals run in Ankara. The electronically signed copy arrives the same day, the wet-signed copy by courier. You can find which items of service we cover on the translation services page.