A quarter of global trade now crosses borders – a new record

In 2026, global trade is growing faster than at any point since 2017. The level of globalisation has hit a record: for the first time, a quarter of all goods sold worldwide are sold outside the country where they were made. That's more than a statistical footnote – it shows that international supply chains and cross-border e-commerce are now the norm, not the exception.

What this means for sellers outside the EU

For manufacturers and brands based outside Europe, this means buyers in the EU are actively searching for products from foreign sellers – and are willing to buy them, as long as delivery times and prices line up. By 2029, global trade is expected to grow another 2.6% per year, a steady, predictable trend rather than a short-term spike.

The bottleneck is rarely the product – it's delivery

The biggest practical hurdle to entering the EU market isn't demand, it's delivery time. A package shipped from Asia or North America often takes days to weeks and goes through customs clearance – which puts off buyers used to one- or two-day delivery. Pre-positioning stock in an EU warehouse drastically cuts that delivery time and makes you look like a local seller to the buyer.

TREEBERG offers exactly that bridgehead: storage in Nordhorn, Germany, with shipping to over 20 countries within 24 hours. For brands outside Europe looking to benefit from the current growth in global trade, an EU warehouse is the simplest way to turn "international shipping" into "local next-day".