Exporting to Poland from Latvia 2026: a practical guide

Poland is the largest market in Central and Eastern Europe and one of the most logical export targets for a Latvian SME — big, growing, geographically close, and strong in exactly the sectors many Latvian companies serve. It’s also a market where two things trip up unprepared teams: Poland runs in Polish, and Poland is stricter than most of the EU on cold email.

This guide is grounded in a real campaign we ran — a 22-day Sales Pilot into Poland for Larta, a Latvian agricultural-supplies retailer — plus the market and compliance facts every Latvian SME should know before the first send.

Real case: Larta into Poland (22-day Sales Pilot)

Larta sells agricultural and farming supplies — milking equipment, electric fencing, livestock tools, feed and more — and wanted to test demand among Polish farms and agri-businesses. We ran a fixed-scope 22-day Sales Pilot, in native Polish, sending on weekdays during Warsaw business hours.

The numbers from that single campaign:

• 950 prospects targeted, 847 emails delivered (2 failed, 0 invalid — a clean, verified list)
• 44 replies → a 5.2% reply rate (industry median is ~1%)
• Replies showed interest in the products
• 0 unsubscribes across 847 sends — a strong signal that the targeting and the Polish-language copy were relevant

One pilot is one data point, not a guarantee. But it shows what a properly prepared, native-language campaign can do in a market most Latvian teams assume is hard.

Why Poland is worth it (and where teams get it wrong)

Plus:

• Largest CEE market — big volume of potential B2B buyers close to home
• Strong in agriculture, manufacturing, logistics and construction — sectors many Latvian SMEs serve
• Geographic and logistical proximity, shared EU/GDPR framework
• Growing economy and rising B2B digital adoption

Minus:

• Polish is expected in most B2B — English is far less of a business default than in the Nordics
• Stricter cold-email rules than most of the EU (see below)
• Large and competitive — “Polish companies” is not an ICP; you must narrow
• Relationship and trust matter; a cold, purely transactional pitch underperforms

Language: Poland runs in Polish

This is the first adjustment, and the Larta result backs it up. In most Polish B2B — and especially in traditional sectors like agriculture — buyers expect to be approached in Polish. A translated-English template reads as foreign and lowers reply rates.

The Larta pilot ran entirely in native Polish and landed a 5.2% reply rate with zero unsubscribes. The practical rule: for Poland, budget for native Polish copy, not English with a Polish subject line.

Compliance: Poland is stricter — respect it

Poland is an opt-in-leaning market for electronic marketing. Under the Electronic Communications Law (PKE), in force since 10 November 2024, Article 398 prohibits sending unsolicited commercial information via electronic communications without prior consent.

That sounds like a wall, but there is a workable B2B path:

• Contact general or role-based company addresses (e.g. info@, biuro@) that are not tied to a named individual, where your message is relevant to that company’s business
• Rely on legitimate interest under GDPR for professionally relevant B2B contact
• Identify yourself clearly and honour opt-outs immediately

This is stricter than Latvia or the UK, and the rules are genuinely nuanced — get local legal advice before you scale. Poland is not a market to improvise in. Done properly, compliance also works in your favour: it forces the tight, relevant targeting that produces results like the Larta campaign.

First steps and which segment

• Narrow to one clear ICP — the Larta pilot worked because it targeted a specific buyer (agri-businesses) with a relevant offer, not “Polish companies”.
• Target relevant company/role addresses, which keeps you inside Poland’s rules and raises relevance at the same time.
• Write native Polish, not translated English.
• Warm the domain and infrastructure before volume.
• Prove one segment, then replicate — the same logic as any first export market.

Timeline and cost expectations

The Larta campaign is a good template:

• Format: a fixed-scope 22-day Sales Pilot — one country, one segment, native Polish.
• Preparation: 1–2 weeks (ICP, verified list, Polish copy, sender warm-up).
• First campaign live: 10–15 days from decision.
• Signal: replies and interest within the campaign window; deeper qualification and deals follow depending on ticket and buying cycle.

On budget, the same ladder applies: a 22-day Sales Pilot (€1,500) validates one segment (this is exactly what Larta ran); Market Testing (€3,000) compares two segments in parallel; a retainer scales what worked. Starting small buys real validation data — like the 5.2% reply rate above — before you commit to a large market.

The mistake to avoid

Two mistakes sink most Latvian attempts at Poland. The first is sending English (or lightly translated English) into a market that expects Polish. The second is treating Poland like a looser EU market and ignoring its stricter electronic-marketing rules. Fix both — write native Polish, target relevant business addresses, and stay inside the PKE framework — and Poland becomes one of the most rewarding markets close to home.

If you’d rather prove that with data before committing, a 22-day Polish Sales Pilot is the same low-risk test we ran for Larta.