According to Emre Aksel from Cerry Co Ltd, on the whole volumes are down on last year although the conditions during the growing season were fine and quality is good. The reason for the low volumes is a late harvest last year which caused trees to flower later this year. This was the main reason of lack volume of Star Ruby. There was also good volume last year which naturally means a smaller the following year.
For lemons, Interdonato is 60-70% less than last season, Meyer is 40% down, while Lamas around the same. Star Ruby grapefruit sees volume down between 30-40% on last year and White Marsh is the same as last season, with Rio Red is up by 10-20%.
As for Mandarins, Fremont and Minneoa will be equal to last year while satsumas will be down 30-40%. All varieties of oranges will be much the same.
A big part of the lemons were exported before they had full colour, due to a lack of lemons on the markets as the Argentinian fruit was already finished and the Spanish not yet begun. Demand was high, prices were high.
Emre explains that Spanish fruit is usually cheaper than Turkish due to cheaper transport costs, "This is the most important reason when we also consider the global economic crisis. From the last few years it can be seen that consumers prefer cheaper prices instead of good quality. Or they want to have cheaper and quality products. So price matters."
He goes on to say that Turkey has had lack of certificated produce in the past therefore importers choose Spanish produce.
"In the last few years producers haven’t wanted to spend more money on certificates which is an additional cost for them. But now things are changing and producers are more educated, they are improving their produce with certificates. In a few years this subject will not be a problem any more for Turkish produce."
Cerry Co. export mainly to Poland, Slovakia, Holland, Czech Rep., Romania and Bulgaria. At the start of the season these markets were good and large volumes were exported.
At the moment prices for Turkish fruit are as follows:
Grapefruit: 0.55 – 0.60 Eur /Kg FCA
Lemons: 0.70 – 0.75 Eur /Kg FCA
Satsumas: 0.55- 0.60 Eur/Kg FCA
For more information:
Emre Aksel
Cerry Co,Ltd.
Istanbul
Tel: +905427206454
Email: info@cerry.co.uk