According to Sefik Can, account manager for Turkish fresh produce exporter Canlar Fruit, the volumes of their pomegranates are always stable due to long standing relationships with growers: “We harvested approximately 2,000 tons of pomegranates this year. For the past seven years, we’ve cooperated with the same growers, so depending on the year the volumes vary about 200 tons every year, but usually no more variance than that. In terms of sizes, the pomegranates harvested in the Denizli region were of normal size, while the pomegranates from Antalya had larger sizes this season.”
Demand for pomegranates has been very high, Can explains. So high that they will finish their season quite early. “At Canlar, we have ten extra modified atmosphere rooms in Antalya. Normally we would plan to open these in February and keep all the fruits stored until then. However, we have already had to open four of them due to high demand. This means that the season will be shorter this year.”
Canlar Fruit has made an effort to keep Mrl levels very low, which Can states is why demand is so high: “The reason demand has been so high this year, is because we have been on top of our game in terms of controlling the amount of pesticides. Therefore, our clients are not taken any risks on whether the produce will be accepted at their border. It’s a great development for us; we’ve seen our standard orders from Scandinavia as well as extra orders from Germany and Poland this year. However, due to the very high demand, I expect we’ll be done after January in terms of supply.”
“As a company, we’re feeling some pressure due to increased energy prices and other rising costs, such as packaging materials and transport in general. However we’ll simply have to tackle these things as we go, there’s not much we can do. We still have some Crimson and Sultana grapes in cold storage as well and we’re waiting for demand for quince to pick up. We are planning to set up cherry and fruit programs for 2023 during Fruit Logistica with our clients. We hope that the 2023 cherry season will be just as intense as the pomegranate season was this year," Can concludes.
For more information:
Sefik Can
Canlar Fruit
Tel: +90 (242) 339 21 91
Email: sefik@canlarfruit.com
www.canlarfruit.com