A few posts ago, we explained how bonded warehouses work in the EU. Most recently, we looked in detail at Germany, as that guide relied heavily on Hamburg as a practical example. This post is dedicated to the other country that comes up time and again when discussing an EU distribution strategy: Poland. It is a different kind of hub than Germany – less a single dominant port, more a rapidly growing network of inland logistics parks serving customers in a dozen countries. Here is why Poland matters, how the Polish customs administration regulates bonded warehouses, what types exist, and what using them actually costs.
Why Poland is a strategic logistics hub for Central and Eastern Europe
According to the IMF, Poland's economy surpassed the one trillion US dollar mark in 2026. This makes Poland the sixth largest economy in the EU and by far the largest in Central and Eastern Europe – larger than Romania, the Czech Republic, and Hungary combined. This size matters in its own right, but for anyone considering distribution, geography matters even more. Poland is situated between Germany and Ukraine, with direct road and rail connections to the Baltic States, Slovakia, and the entire CEE region, for which Western European ports were never really designed to serve.
The country's logistics sector reflects this location. Poland now has around 35 to 36 million square meters of modern warehouse space, making it the fifth largest logistics market in Europe by this measure. Demand continued to rise in 2026, while some Western markets cooled down. On the coast, the Port of Gdańsk has become the fastest-growing container port in Europe: in 2025, it handled nearly 2.8 million TEUs after the Baltic Hub terminal put a third deep-water quay into operation. None of this is a coincidence. Poland has systematically built up its logistics base over two decades of EU membership, and bonded warehouses have become one of the tools that companies use to actually exploit the advantage of this base.
How bonded warehouses are regulated in Poland
Bonded warehouses are regulated in Poland by the KAS, the Krajowa Administracja Skarbowa (National Revenue Administration). The KAS is a relatively young institution. It was created in 2017 by merging previously separate authorities: the Customs Service, the Tax Administration, and the Fiscal Control. Thanks to this consolidation, a single authority is today responsible for both the approval of the bonded warehouse and ongoing audits, instead of dividing the task among multiple bodies, as some other member states do.
Applications are submitted to a local urząd celno-skarbowy, a customs and tax office whose head (naczelnik) reviews the accounting, inventory management systems, and financial standing of the applicant before granting the authorization. The majority of this process now runs via PUESC, Poland's electronic customs and tax portal, through which declarations, security applications, and AEO applications are handled paperlessly. As elsewhere in the EU, an AEO-certified economic operator can have their security significantly reduced, and the obligation to provide security lies with the holder of the warehouse authorization, not with every company that stores goods there. For a non-Polish resident importer, this is the key point: choose an already authorized public bonded warehouse, and the majority of the regulatory burden lies with the operator rather than you.
Types of bonded warehouses in Poland
Poland offers the same three EU categories that we described in our first guide: public bonded warehouse Type I, public bonded warehouse Type II, and private bonded warehouse. In Polish, all of these fall under the term skład celny. The public bonded warehouse Type I remains the most common solution for companies without their own Polish legal entity, as the operator carries the compliance burden and the importer is merely a depositor.
Specifically for Poland, the parallel excise duty system is worth mentioning. Excise goods, including alcohol, tobacco, and fuels, require authorization as a skład podatkowy, i.e., an excise warehouse. This is a different permit from that for the bonded warehouse, even though both are often located in the same building. A logistics service provider that stores both ordinary imported goods and, for example, spirits or tobacco products typically holds both authorizations. In this way, a single facility can suspend customs, import VAT, and excise duty at the same time. This double authorization is common among larger operators in Warsaw, Upper Silesia, and Wrocław, and is one of the reasons why Poland has become a popular location for companies distributing a mixed range rather than a single product category in the EU.
Wrocław: A key distribution location for Central Europe
Wrocław has no port, and does not need one to play an important role. The city lies at the intersection of two major European transport corridors: the A4 motorway, part of Pan-European Transport Corridor III, which runs from Berlin via Wrocław and Kraków to Ukraine, and the A8, part of the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, which connects the Baltic Sea with the Adriatic. This intersection makes Wrocław a true hub rather than just another warehouse location, and the market has grown accordingly. Wrocław is now Poland's fourth largest logistics region, and in the first half of 2025 alone, developers completed more new warehouse space there than in any other Polish city.
The tenant list says more than the square footage. SHEIN opened a major distribution center there. Amazon operates five fulfillment centers in the wider metropolitan area, and DHL, DB Schenker, and Raben maintain significant locations along the Bielany Wrocławskie corridor south of the city. Vacancy has dropped to nearly 2 percent – so low that growth is now testing the limits of regional infrastructure: the motorway junction of the A4 and A8 carries more traffic at peak times than was originally planned. For a company setting up a bonded warehouse with an eye on Germany, the Czech Republic, and other parts of Central Europe, Wrocław is usually the first location that comes up in discussion.
How to use a Polish bonded warehouse for distribution in the EU and CEE
The arguments for Poland are similar to those we put forward for Germany – just with reversed target markets. Non-EU companies without a Polish legal entity work through an indirect customs representative and typically use a public rather than a private bonded warehouse, since a private bonded warehouse authorization requires an EU-resident holder. Goods can be relabeled, sorted, and consolidated under customs suspension so that nothing is released for free circulation until an order actually exists.
Poland shows its true strengths after release. Goods arriving via Gdańsk on the coast can be transported within a day to a bonded warehouse in Wrocław, Upper Silesia, or Central Poland, and from there reach customers not only throughout Poland, but also in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Baltic States, and Ukraine – without a second EU border crossing. This network is a major reason why Poland became the preferred logistics base as European supply chains reorganized after 2022, and it continues to grow. For e-commerce retailers, Poland's parcel infrastructure offers another advantage worth knowing: InPost alone operates around 25,000 parcel lockers nationwide – the largest network of its kind in the world. This is useful for any business wanting to fulfill CEE orders directly from bonded warehouse stock rather than routing everything through a Western European hub.
Costs of bonded warehousing in Poland
Warehouse space is indeed cheaper in Poland than in Germany or the Netherlands, and the difference is large enough to matter. Prime Class A space was leased in the first half of 2026 for around €4.50 to €5.50 per square meter per month; smaller urban units cost up to €8.25. This aligns with the 20 to 40 percent gap we mentioned in our earlier cost guide, and some market data from 2026 even puts prices outside Warsaw at only about half of what comparable space costs in Germany.
Bonded warehousing comes on top of this baseline, just as it does everywhere else in the EU: a premium for the warehouse keeper's guarantee, the cost of maintaining inventory records, and the administrative burden of being audit-ready at any time. This does not change the fundamental question from our earlier cost guide: do the customs duties and import VAT at stake justify the premium? For Poland, there is an additional factor. Polish VAT is 23 percent, four points higher than the 19 percent in Germany. The tax deferral is therefore worth more per euro of stored goods, even though customs rates are identical across the EU. For companies weighing Germany against Poland, this figure is often the deciding factor – not warehouse rent alone.
