The Turkish lemon season has been a satisfying one, says Mustafa Arslan, owner of MDA Agricultural Products: “Overall, we’ve had a very productive lemon season. From the beginning until the end of the season, it has been a very high quality and successful season for our Meyer, Interdonato and Lamas lemons. However, the expected demand in the Far East market did not materialize. Especially after October we had some difficulties in the interim periods, but thanks to the demand from our other main markets, it was a good season in general.”
Although the season has been good in general, getting the produce where it needs to go has been a huge challenge, Arslan explains. “Unfortunately, the most important problem we face is with logistics. We faced serious cost increases last season, and so have been struggling with logistics problems. Our costs have increased on top of that due to waiting times, analysis and similar applications in the entry-exit processes at the border gates and the additional costs brought by these processes.”
One of the aims of Arslan was to improve as much as possible to ensure development is sustainable and in accordance with EU rules: “Now, as a producer, MDA Tarım and all our producers, farmers in general, can realize quality and healthy production in accordance with sustainable agriculture principles by consciously complying with agricultural practices. For this, we provide regular training to our producers with expert agricultural engineers and technicians who have all the necessary technical equipment and knowledge, and we help them in every need. With a significant reduction in drug residue problems, we can now look to the future with more confidence. We will continue our sustainable development by trying to reduce residues to 0 in accordance with EU rules.
In terms of volumes, there were no big shifts from the previous season, Arslan says. “In general, there was similar production compared to the 2020-2021 season. This year, we did not encounter any significant problems in production, so supply was steady. And while demand from Far Eastern countries decreased significantly compared to the previous year, we encountered an increasing demand in other markets to compensate for this. In our country, approximately 1,450,000 tons of lemons were produced in 2021. Approximately 500,000 tons of those lemons were exported. A general decline in production of 5-7 percent is expected in 2022, but we hope we can get more demand for export.”
“As MDA Tarım, we will continue to implement our sustainable development program resolutely for better quality, healthier and less environmental impact through our production and packaging methods. By promoting the best loss and waste prevention actions throughout the supply chain, we will do our best to contribute to a healthier, carbon-neutral world through transparent production and operations. We are digitalizing our traceability methods by improving them. Our aim is not to export more, but to continue to serve our customers with more reliable, healthy and sustainable agriculture principles.” Arslan concludes.
For more information:
Mustafa Arslan
MDA Agricultural Products
Mobile: +90 541 348 39 09
Email: mustafa@mda-agro.com
www.mda-agro.com