Every private label tea project starts at the same point: a co-packer's minimum order quantity. Get it wrong and you either pay for capacity you cannot sell or you find out mid-project that your supplier cannot serve a brand your size. Here is how EU tea co-packing MOQ actually works, what the published and unpublished floors look like, and where a 5,000-bag floor fits in the market.

What sets MOQ at most European co-packers

MOQ at a tea co-packer is not a sales floor. It is an economic one. Below a certain volume per SKU, the fixed costs of a production run - line clearance, print plate amortization, envelope film roll minimums, QC batch time - consume the margin on the job. The supplier breaks even at best. That is why most publicly stated floors sit where they sit.

The three mechanical drivers are:

1. Line clearance and setup. Every time a line switches between SKUs, it is cleaned and reconfigured. At 5,000 bags, that clearance time represents a meaningful fraction of total machine time. At 25,000 bags, it is noise.
2. Print plate setup. A flexo plate for a private label envelope is a one-off per artwork. At low volumes, amortized plate cost adds significantly to per-bag economics. Multi-SKU brands can plate-batch to offset this - running four chamomile, peppermint, fennel, and lemon balm SKUs off the same plate gang.
3. Film and material roll minimums. Envelope film - OPP, cellophane, PLA, or paper - comes on fixed-width rolls from converters. The roll minimum is the same whether you run 5,000 or 50,000 bags from it.

MOQ ranges across major EU co-packers

The table below reflects what we know from buyer conversations, tender submissions, and publicly available information. Most of the co-packers below do not publish their floors openly - buyers discover them at first contact.

Why a 5,000-bag floor is possible here

Our floor comes from a combination of machine format, throughput, and business model. The HST PT-2.33 runs at 150-160 bags per minute. At that rate, 5,000 bags is roughly 35-40 minutes of production time. The economics work because we plate-batch, we run a single bag format (no multi-format line complexity), and we serve a mix of large-volume SKUs that subsidize shorter runs for newer brands.

We also operate a single-shift line, which means short runs fit into fill capacity rather than displacing committed production windows.

Co-packing MOQ vs full production MOQ

These are not the same number and mixing them up is one of the most common planning mistakes.

Co-packing means you supply the tea, we bag it. You own the recipe, the sourcing relationship, and any certifications on the blend. Our MOQ applies to the bagging operation only.

Full production means we source the tea, develop or execute the recipe, design the artwork if needed, print, pack, and export. We lock raw material on your behalf, book certified-origin ingredients, and carry blend quality through the chain. That additional complexity - and the risk we absorb on raw material - pushes the floor higher.

For most first-time private label brands, co-packing at 5,000 bags is the right starting point. Validate the bag, the artwork, and the retail response before committing to a full production program with recipe IP embedded.

MOQ planning by buyer profile

How heritage affects floor discipline

Our parent operation has supplied dried herbs to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland since 1990. The same documentation discipline, the same batch quality records, the same export compliance that German buyers have relied on for 36 years now runs through the co-packing side.

That heritage is partly why we can offer a 5,000-bag floor without cutting corners on QC. QC costs are built into the rate. Foreign-body detection, 30-minute bag-weight spot checks, and batch sample retention for two years are standard, not add-ons, regardless of run size.

What to ask when comparing co-packing quotes

Five questions that separate a real MOQ from a sales number:

1. Is the floor per SKU or per order? A co-packer with a 25,000-bag floor per order but 10 SKUs may be requiring a 250,000-bag commitment.
2. Does the floor change with envelope material? A paper envelope run may have different film minimums than an OPP or PLA run.
3. Is plate setup included or invoiced separately? Separate plate costs change the per-bag math significantly at low volumes.
4. What is the sample policy? Some co-packers charge full-rate per-bag for samples. We do not.
5. Does the floor apply to repeat runs on the same artwork? Repeat runs are faster because plate and brief are already in the system - the floor should reflect that.

Internal links

See our full co-packing service page for lead times and what you need to supply. For brands that need recipe development and sourcing handled, see full production. Questions on the bag itself - filter paper grade, string type, envelope options - are answered on our bag page. For buyers based in Germany and the DACH region specifically, see our Germany page.

Related reading: Custom tea bag MOQ for German brands and private label tea cost from Kosovo.