The grape season in Turkey is in full swing and the Sultana Seedless has had an excellent season so far. With the weather on their side and demand currently being very high, one Turkish exporter has a very good feeling about the year.
Turkish exporter Eren Tarim has a very good feeling about their current grape season. According to Coskun Eren, the head of marketing at Eren Tarim, they had the best start with Sultanas grapes they’ve had in many years. “We could not even fulfill all of the first week orders we had, so we had to pick the best places to send them. The weather is also lending a helping hand right now; no rain, no hail, fingers crossed!” Eren said. “The most popular variety is without a doubt Sultanas Seedless. The reason is simple: it’s a seedless grape with brix levels of 18-24, that only grows in Turkey. Turkish grapes are cheaper than those of our Italian competitors and they have a great shelf life on top of that, what more can you ask for?”
Although the season is going as good as Eren Tarim can hope for, the season isn’t without its challenges. Especially since Eren Tarim delivers a portion of their grapes directly to supermarkets. “The biggest challenge for us this season has been working with Supermarkets directly. We’ve wanted to achieve this for many years and this year finally started with a sizeable volume towards that goal. Working with Supermarkets directly is good for us, but the challenges are immense. Quality, delivery time and specifications all have to be spot on, or else you’ll have a big headache to deal with later.”
Packaging of fresh produce is currently a hot topic in the world, as consumers want plastic to be removed from the equation where possible. For Eren Tarim this wasn’t a huge issue as they’ve been using cardboard packaging for years. They always look for improvements where they can, says Eren: “The leading country in setting packaging trends for Europe would have to be Spain and we always check what they are up to. We’ve always tried to stay ahead of the curve in terms of packaging, we’ve done carton boxes with 1 KG x 5 envelopes inside one box for many years, which is very suited for supermarkets and is actually highly preferred.”
This year, Eren Tarim is hoping to increase their total export by 500 tons, when compared to last year: “We did roughly 1500 Tons, or 80 Trucks, of export last year. About 90 per cent of this was Sultanas. This year we aim to break above 2000 tons of export, and I believe we will do it. This season the weather is on our side and we have the interest going high now. Our most important markets are currently Poland, Belarus, England, Serbia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Germany. However we’d love to send some containers overseas as well, as Sultanas Seedless has a shelf life of 60+ days with our special winter packaging. We will begin using this packaging around the first week of September and store our grapes until December.”
Eren Tarim will be attending Asia Fruit Logistica in Hong Kong. You can find them in Hall 3, stand K20.
For more information:
Coskun Eren
Eren Tarim
Phone: +90 324 454 1487-88
Mobile: +90 533 695 5802
Email: coskun@erentarim.com
www.erentarim.com