The Akdeniz Citrus Exporters Association is an association of 25 member companies located in Cyprus’s northern citrus region, Güzelyurt. The group’s main activities include creating studies in the citrus industry for the improvement of the following: exporting, marketing, competitive analysis, growth and pricing. These types of studies help tackle local and international industry issues.
According to Chairman Ahmet Hasturk, “Most of the association’s products are Valencia oranges, Mandora (Ortanique), W Murcott, WSM grapefruit and lemons. Our production and sales have been growing in the past few years, due to the increasing demand for easy-peel mandarins, seedless lemons and late season oranges."
AKDENIZ is expecting a growth of 15%, with the following production levels in tons: Mandora 30,000, Valencia 70,000, lemons 5,000 and VMS grapefruit 5,000. In the coming year, the association is expecting a higher quality of mandarins but is also anticipating smaller sized Valencia oranges due to bad weather conditions.
“We are able to sell to a lot of countries, because our products meet high health standards such as those of the Global GAP regulations. Because of the high quality of our products, we are able to enter different markets such as Turkey, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Russia, Ukraine and other countries in the EU."
Russia and Turkey are seen as important markets for AKDENIZ in the future. The recent positive developments in agricultural trade between the two countries affect the asssociation positively.
"We have also been exploring new opportunities in the Far East. We’ve partnered with Asia Fruit Logistica to reach markets in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Japan," added Hasturk.
“The demand is there, this is why we expect competition to remain high especially from Egypt. Our strategy would be to leverage on our quality and speed up the time it takes to reach the market.”
For more information:
AKDENIZ Citrus Exporters Association
Tel.: 0090-542-851-5005