The pomegranate has come to an end in Turkey and, with the season behind us, it’s safe to say it was a good year. With high demand and good quality produce. Hatipoglu Tarim has been satisfied and can look towards their upcoming grape season with their heads held high.
The Turkish pomegranate season has been good to Hatipoglu Tarim, says Riza: “This past season was better than last two years. The orders were continuously and demand was high overall. This season the volumes are about 50 per cent higher than last season, which is a good development. We’re currently out of produce, but if we had more fruit inside the cold storage, we could still fulfil orders, as we still get a lot of requests.”
Although the season was relatively good, it did come with a few challenges: “The biggest problem last season were in the volumes of fruit. The total amount of harvested fruit was way more than we initially expected. During the first harvesting and storing stage, it was actually very hard to finish the work in time; but we somehow successfully managed everything,” Riza explains. “Another thing we noticed is the increase of fruit rots while the fruit is in the cold chamber. However every problem is eventually a lesson for us and makes the way forward more clear. So we’re already more prepared than ever for the next season.”
The main pomegranate variety that Hatipoglu Tarim exports is the Hicaz variety. “The Hicaz taste is wonderful and remains very popular in Germany, the Netherlands and France. But these aren’t our only markets, as we are sending shipments to the Far East consistently.” Riza says.
Pomegranates aren’t the only produce that the Turkish company exports though, as the firm is getting ready for the new grape season: “We can’t wait for our grape season to start! We have huge production areas near Manisa City in Turkey. We are sending huge amounts of seedless Sultana grapes to the European Markets. We have all the certificates like Global Gap, BRC and Sedex. We have already started preparations. I expect the first harvests to start around the middle of the July, maybe early August. Early varieties will be available before Sultana Grapes has its time, as we have Crimson and Red Globes too.”
Hatipoglu Tarim attended Fruit Logistica in Berlin, the exhibition was a great success for the company, says Riza: “Fruit Logistica is very important for us and everyone else in this sector. The people at our stand didn’t have any time for even breathing, that’s how busy it was. If I would have to guess I would think about 60 per cent of our visitors came from Europe. The other 40 per cent can be from anywhere in the world, honestly. We made good connections this year and got to meet some good people. We feel we represent our country and our company very well. If you have the quality produce with the right price, everything else will come naturally.”
For more information:
Muhsin Riza Agdag
Hatipoglu Tarim
Agriculture Department Director
Tel: +90 530 552 8306
Email: riza@hatipoglutarim.com
www.hatipoglutarim.com