After a rough start, the cherry season in Turkey has since recovered, says Alper Kerim, owner of Turkish fruit exporter Demir Fresh Fruits: “Although I’ve heard other exporters make claims about their cherry season being a disaster, this wasn’t really the case for Demir Fresh Fruits. Our season has gone very well, which can also be attributed to the quality of our cherries. That said, it’s not like the entire season was smooth sailing. The first part of the season was really bad due to weather conditions. Heavy rains combined with sunburns did indeed affect the quality of the product. However, looking at where we are now in the cherry season, things have really improved.”
Just as it is for apples, India has been a good market for the cherries of DFF, Kerim explains. “For all of our products, Asia is the strongest market. Our cherry operations are basically an extension of our apple operations. For apples, we’re very strong in the Indian market, but also other countries in Asia. This means we’re also strong in these markets when it comes to our cherry season. Singapore, Malaysia and India remain our strongest markets for them.”
According to Kerim, the Turkish cherry season in 2022 was terrible. He was happy to see that this year’s season was much better: “Looking at the total volumes for this year, we’ve actually increased our export volume significantly. This is also due to the last year being a complete and utter disaster, so increasing the volumes wasn’t all that hard. Overall this year has been a better season than last year, despite the challenges early on in the season.”
Kerim hopes to be able to export even more volumes next year. “For next season, we are planning to increase our cherry operation. The reason is that demand for our BonBon cherries is steadily increasing, and the cherry is doing quite well in the market. We will do our best to keep going for the same quality level, so consumers always know what to expect from our cherries,” Kerim concludes.
For more information:
Alper Kerim
Demir Fresh Fruits
Tel: +90 532 514 2080
Email: alper@dff.com.tr
www.dff.com.tr