The pandemic has had a large effect on a variety of fruits and vegetables. Currently the situation seems to be improving and one Turkish exporter hopes that the cherries will be their first season in 2020 that will not be affected.
With the early varieties of Turkish cherries having started a while ago, it is now time for two of Demir Fresh Fruit’s main varieties, says Alper Kerim, managing director of DFF: “The cherry shipments have only just started. Demir Fresh Fruits prefer not to ship the early varieties in general, so we have started shipments as soon as Napoleon and the Z900 varieties seasons started. This means we’re still at the very early stages of the season, but I feel all is going well so far. We see both quality and sizing getting better every day we visit the orchards. Although there has been rain for the past few days, the forecast is looking great and we expect nice weather during the harvest.”
As the coronavirus is slowing down, odds are the cherry season will still be very strong for Turkey. “We had to deal with major challenges when it came to getting the labor for harvest in the beginning stages, due to coronavirus. However, the situation in Turkey is improving every day and we’re no longer facing these difficulties. As a company, we export a variety of fruits to 21 different countries in the world. All the seasons up to the cherry season have been deeply impacted by the coronavirus, but the virus slowed down just as cherries were about to start. Therefore I feel the cherry season and the coronavirus will not be in the same basket. This year business dropped around 15 to 20 per cent, but we will compensate this slowdown with our cherries in June and July.” Kerim explains.
With the most difficult issues out of the way, Kerim looks to enter new markets this season, on a different continent than his main markets currently are: “For DFF the most important markets are Europe and Asia. The Gulf countries like to work on consignment sales, and we do not prefer this style of business. We do work with some of the largest companies in these countries and are very happy to be in business with them. For the cherries we have our focus on Asia more than Europe, which can also be said about our honey fruits. This year we’ve shipped cherries to Ghana and Nigeria as well. It’s a new adventure for us and we are excited to see the result. The next target in terms of new markets would be the Scandinavian countries!” he concludes.
For more information:
Alper Kerim
Demir Fresh Fruits
Tel: +90 532 514 2080
Email: alper@dff.com.tr
www.dff.com.tr