Starting from July 1 of this year, customs duties of 3 euros per item must be paid for goods purchased in third countries in packages valued up to 150 euros. In June, over 710,000 customs declarations were processed, in July - nearly 525,000, and in August - about 528,000. In total, over 5.8 million customs declarations for low-value goods in packages were processed in the first eight months of 2026. The number of declarations processed from January to August 2026 was 2.8 times higher than the total number of declarations processed for the entire year of 2025 (2.07 million). "Latvijas pasts" also notes that the number of low-value packages from third countries has decreased. "As summer is traditionally a less active period in the logistics industry, and with the introduction of the import customs duty, the number of low-value packages from third countries has decreased in line with the average across the European Union, which is between 30 and 50%," said communication specialist of "Latvijas pasts" Anniya Priselkova-Bottillieri. Both before July 1 and now, the main flow of packages comes from online stores in Asia, the USA, the UK, and Norway. In the case of Asia, "Latvijas pasts" predicts that the flow of packages will stabilize in October, but is unlikely to reach previous volumes. The statistics were also influenced by increased consumer purchases on e-commerce platforms before the introduction of the import duty, which raised the average volume of packages. According to estimates from the international postal and logistics company "Omniva", after the new regulations were introduced, the volume of packages from third countries decreased by about 70% in the first months. Such a sharp initial decline was likely caused not only by the additional costs but also by a wait-and-see reaction from buyers as people familiarized themselves with the new customs clearance and payment procedures, notes the head of the communication department at "Omniva" Janis Andjans.
