ABOUT US

Decades of experience and a special quality standard

Specialised publisher and data content provider

The company Mendel dates back to 1961. Initially founded as a typesetting office, the production and publication of customs tariffs and other publications soon took hold – at that time still in the form of loose-leaf binders. Since foreign trade information on import regulations or customs duties, for example, is constantly changing, the concept of regularly updating our publications has hardly changed to this day. But the media have: XML and HTML are the formats in which most of the data we publish reaches the user. The main target language is English, so our data and information can be used worldwide.

Qualität ist maßgeblicher Anspruch unserer Arbeit. Denn nur valide Daten lassen sich sinnvoll in außenwirtschaftlichen und Zollprozessen nutzen.

Special feature of our working method

Our experience as a publishing house fundamentally shapes the way we work – also with regard to electronic publications and the processing of information in databases. When publishing content, things like spelling, grammar, sentence structure, layout and a good expression are not superfluous or useless additions. The internet seems to suggest otherwise these days. In the field of data content and the automated, sometimes conceptless processing of content, this leads to unfortunate results. We have never followed this path and are of the opinion that the application of classical publishing working methods, even as it concerns foreign trade related data content, is decisive for the production of high-quality content. This process is characterised by various steps:

Work processes of the foreign trade editorial department

01

Research

This step involves the identification and review of various relevant sources.

02

Compilation

The information identified in the first step is collected and compiled.

03

Evaluation

The compiled information is checked for its relevance and validity in relation to the research question.

04

Integration and consolidation

Integration means the composition of different information and sources to solve a problem. Consolidation means the updating of integrated data.

05

Quality control

The results are checked according to the four-eyes principle. This partly includes classic editing and proofreading, but can also consist of manual checks of electronically processed data.

Milestones

2023Launch of the online platform ‘ASEAN Tariff Finder – Trade information at your fingertips‘; the co-operation between Mendel and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce hits the 10-year-mark; our range of data content is constantly growing
2022Worldwide, over 10,000 active customers and several 10,000 users work with our data; in addition to the classic print and CD-ROM versions, a completely self-developed online version of ‘K und M‘ is launched
2019The ‘K und M‘ turn 100
2015Building and continuous supply of a database on export and import regulations for seeds in 96 countries according to customer requirements
2013Mendel and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce cooperate in the publication of Konsulats- und Mustervorschriften (‘K und M‘). With the 40th edition, these are published for the first time by Mendel.
2013The first issue of FOREIGN TRADE is published in cooperation with the Aussenwirtschafstrunde e.V.
2012Mendel supplies the EU Commission with data for customs tariffs and import regulations for all countries included in the Market Access Database
2008Our own developed internet portal MendelOnline goes live
2003Mendel provides the EU Commission with data for 15 countries for the Export Helpdesk for Developing Countries
2002First data productions in XML
1998Preparation of first country reports and delivery of customs tariff data for the EU Commission's Market Access Database
1997Foundation of the in-house foreign trade editorial department
1995First publications are published electronically on CD-ROM
1985Introduction of an electronic workflow in typesetting
1961Founding of the company in Aachen

Management

Mendel is an owner-managed SME. It is managed by the two partners Anna Gayk and Kolja Mendel.

Anna Gayk

Managing Partner

Anna Gayk is the Managing Partner of Mendel. In addition to supervising the research, evaluation and presentation of foreign trade information on, among other things, customs tariffs, import regulations and rules of origin, she manages and coordinates the development of electronic applications and databases as well as classic publication projects. She is the author and co-author of various books and articles on topics including customs and preferential law, import regulations of third countries and certification regulations. She is also a member of the editorial board of the foreign trade journal FOREIGN TRADE.

Kolja Mendel

Managing Partner

Kolja Mendel is also Managing Partner of Mendel and mainly deals with the presentation of foreign trade issues in specialised applications and publications. The focus of his work is on tariff and non-tariff regulations of third countries as well as questions of origin law. As project manager, he leads the implementation of these issues in databases of the European Commission and for authorities and institutions of various third countries. He is a regular speaker at (inter-)national events and seminars, (co-)author of various publications and member of the editorial board of the trade magazine FOREIGN TRADE.