“Pricing is a supply-demand issue and lately there are a few more big players in the market who like to put figs into their products as an ingredient or sell them packaged in their stores. So the consumption is growing now and that means the prices are also going higher,” says Koksal Celep of Safe Food Corp. in Edgewater, NJ, which produces portion packs of organic figs.
Celep also notes that part of the problem lies in the fig production. “It’s a tree fruit and you can’t increase the production in a short period of time,” he says. “As far as we see, the production isn’t growing respective to the growing demand. The demand for organic figs is growing year by year because in the marketplace, figs have a lot of potential right now.”
Turkish harvest
Right now, Celep notes that most of the organic fig supply is coming from Turkey and is harvested at the end of summer. Other markets such as California, Greece and Spain handle some production as well.
“But that harvest has to last 12 months and depending on the season, volume, demand, supply issues and more, there might be some carry over or not,” he says. “The past few years have not had much carry over to the next crop. The supply is pretty limited at this point in the year and this is as per usual for the past few years.”
For more information:
Koksal Celep
Safe Food Corporation
Tel: +1 (201) 865-7100
koksal@safefoodcorp.com
www.safefoodcorp.com
www.sunnyfruit.com