Every marble quotation you will ever receive from a Turkish supplier ends with three or four capital letters — EXW, FOB, CFR, CIF — and those letters change the price by thousands of dollars. They are Incoterms: standardized international trade terms that define exactly where the supplier's responsibility ends and yours begins. Misunderstanding them is the single most expensive mistake first-time stone importers make, so let us walk through the four that matter in this trade, in the order of how much work they leave on your desk.
EXW — Ex Works — is the rawest price. It means: the crates are sitting at our factory gate in Izmir, and everything after that is your problem. Trucking to the port, export customs clearance, loading, ocean freight, insurance, import clearance, delivery. EXW looks cheapest on paper, and it is — because you have bought the least. It is the right choice only if you already have a freight forwarder you trust who handles Turkish exports routinely.
FOB — Free On Board — is the workhorse of the stone trade. The supplier trucks the material to the port (for us, Izmir Alsancak or Aliağa), clears export customs, and is responsible until the crates cross the ship's rail. From that moment — ocean freight, insurance, arrival charges, import duty — it is yours. Most experienced importers buy FOB because it cleanly splits the work along the line where each side has the advantage: we know our ports, you know yours.
CFR — Cost and Freight — moves one more piece onto our side: we book and pay the ocean freight to your named port. You still carry the risk once the goods are on board (this surprises people — with CFR, risk transfers at loading even though we paid the freight), and insurance is still your responsibility. CIF — Cost, Insurance and Freight — is CFR plus a marine insurance policy in your name. For a first shipment, CIF is the least homework: one price, delivered to your port, insured.
So which should you choose? Our honest advice, having shipped to buyers in more than forty countries: first order, CIF — you learn the landed cost with no surprises. From the second order, get freight quotes of your own and compare against FOB; if your forwarder beats our rates, switch. Never buy EXW until you have cleared Turkish exports at least once through someone who does it weekly.
Two practical notes. First, whatever the term, insist that packing (fumigated wooden crates or bundles, ISPM-15 stamped) is itemized on the proforma — stone that arrives cracked because of packaging is an argument nobody wins. Second, the proforma invoice you approve should state the Incoterm, the named port, and the exact payment schedule. Ours do — every quotation built through our online proforma tool carries the term you selected, the port, and the full cost breakdown, precisely so that this article's ambiguities never appear on your paperwork.