Cyprus’s appetite for low-cost online shopping has produced an unexpectedly large return for the state, with the new €3 customs duty generating almost €2 million in July alone. 

During the first month of the measure, Customs processed 650,000 chargeable items contained in 160,000 parcels, according to customs department spokesman George Constantinou, speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).  

At €3 for each chargeable item category, the figures point to revenue of approximately €1.95m, equivalent to an average customs charge of just over €12 per parcel. 

The result is particularly striking when set against the department’s earlier estimate of roughly €15m in annual revenue. July alone produced about 13 per cent of that projection. If collections remained at the same level, they would exceed €23m over 12 months, although customs has cautioned that the first month cannot be treated as a reliable guide to longer-term shopping habits. 

The EU-wide duty came into force on July 1 and applies to consignments worth less than €150 arriving directly from countries outside the European Union. It is charged by product category rather than simply once per parcel. A package containing products belonging to three different customs categories, for example, attracts a charge of €9. 

Constantinou said that “Cyprus recorded a relative decline in small-parcel imports compared with previous months, although it remains too early to conclude that consumers have been deterred by the additional cost.” 

Some shoppers may have brought orders forward to June to avoid the charge, he said, while July is also a holiday month during which online purchases may naturally fall. The department expects a clearer picture to emerge within the next three to four months. 

The response of large online retailers will also be closely watched. Some companies may choose to hold stock in warehouses inside the EU and dispatch orders from there, avoiding the treatment applied to goods shipped directly from third countries. 

Despite the volume of goods passing through the system, Constantinou said “there were no particular problems” in handling the additional administrative work. During the opening days, “adjustments were needed until the calculations and the method of collection were made through the accounting system”, but “Today, things have normalized.” 

Nor has the department received formal complaints from shoppers. Initial questions focused largely on whether the charge depended on the date an order was placed or when the parcel entered the EU. 

Constantinou said that after the measure was implemented, “people understood that the imposition of the duty does not significantly affect the overall price” and estimated that “orders will return to previous levels”. 

The charge was introduced as Europe struggles with an extraordinary rise in direct-to-consumer imports from platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress. According to official EU figures, almost 5.9 billion low-value items entered the bloc in 2025, up 26 per cent in a year. Their average declared value was just €8.82, yet they represented nearly 98 per cent of all imported items handled by EU customs authorities.