Multiple fruit seasons have kicked off in Turkey, meaning that exporters who deal in all of these products are headed towards some busy times. The cherry season has finished, and figs, grapes and apples are next on the menu. For the first two commodities it appears production will be lower this year due to unfavorable weather conditions.
Now that the Turkish cherry season is over, Turkish fruit exporter of Ani Tarim has no time to take it easy with three different products going into season simultaneously, Mehmet Cakmak, Sales and Marketing manager for Ani Tarim explains: “We successfully completed the cherry season late July and have just entered in another intense period of the year through the start of black fig, table grape and apple harvests and exports as of mid-August. We’re running the packing and exporting operations of these fruits from different locations and facilities. Handling three products with different teams at the required standards which our customers need is challenging, but we are familiar with this situation after years of experience. After carefully planning and preparations in the pre-harvest period together with our teams and our growers, we have smoothly started our loadings.”
One of the more iconic fruits from Turkey is the Bursa black fig. Cakmak states that they’re expecting lower volumes and a shorter season due to bad weather. “We supply Bursa black figs which its popularity has been increasing continuously across the world thanks to its unique quality and taste, and manage all our operations from our facility based in Bursa. Our major export destinations are Germany and France, also south Asia and Gulf capitals for airway deliveries. This season we’ve seen production of black figs drop by about 20%, due to aridity and sharp temperature differences which occurred in the spring months in the cultivation region, which had the direct impacts on pollination and fruit growth. For that reason, the season for us seems to last till mid-October, which is 10 to 15 days shorter than the previous year.”
The second fruit that Ani Tarim will be dealing with in the upcoming months is the table grape. According to Cakmak the grapes have also suffered from the weather condition, resulting in a similar drop in harvested volumes: “Regarding to table grapes, we mostly export the Sultana seedless variety, which are mostly sent from Alaşehir and Sarıgöl regions of Manisa to European markets. Those two regions are the most productive regions for Sultana grapes in Turkey. In addition to Sultana, we pack Crimson Seedless, Red Globe, Antep Black and Rezaki varieties in our facility located in Alaşehir. Comparing to the last year’s records, we estimate a 15 to 20% decrease on total crop volume in the regions, due to effects of unfavorable weather conditions during the blossom period in the spring months, just like what happened to the figs. This may cause a shortage in the procurement of good quality grapes towards mid-autumn months.”
Finally, the Turkish apples will also be exported by Ani Tarim. As there are multiple varieties, some are already being harvested while other varieties will be harvested around late September. “Apart from fig and grape campaigns, we’ve just started to run our apple exports with the Gala variety from the Niğde region. For us, it’s also an exciting season as this is the first apple season in which we will be at full capacity from our own packing facility, where is situated adjacent to our main packhouse and headquarter complex in Eğirdir region of Isparta. Construction of the facility and implementation of sorting and grading machine are still underway, and it is planned to come into operation as of October. This investment will enable the company to export more efficiently with a sufficient capacity, which fully meets the needs of our customers, who are mainly from Gulf and South Asia countries. While Gala harvest is already in full swing, we plan to start harvests and exports of Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith varieties towards late September as well.” Cakmak concludes.
For more information:
Mehmet Çakmak
Anı Tarım Fresh Fruit Ltd. Co.
Tel: +90 246 334 20 04
Mob: +90 539 850 30 32
Email: marketing@anitarim.com.tr
www.anitarim.com.tr