Now that the Turkish apple season is coming to a close, Demir Fresh Fruit will focus on the cherry season, says Alper Kerim, owner of Demir Fresh Fruits. He states that demand is on the up right now: “I’m happy to say that the cherry cultivation has seen very nice improvements this year. The weather conditions are enabling the cherry season to be better than last year. Our cherry season has just started and demand is increasing day by day. As India is our main market for our apples, we’ll also be looking at Asian countries as our target for cherries. However, European markets are also quite interesting for us. We’ll be able to use our good operation system for air cargo shipments as well.”
Kerim expects the Turkish volumes for cherries to be larger than it was last year. As more volumes become available, the prices should decrease. “Every season, the prices for cherries start at a very high point and then they go down through the month of June. Looking at these trends, I expect that starting next week, prices will be much more lower than what we expected. The Turkish cherry production is much higher than it was last year. It could even be 20 per cent higher, although this is a pure estimation. This means the Turkish cherry will be able to compete with cherries from other countries very well. In general, the Turkish cherry is very powerful in the industry and as Demir Fresh Fruits we want to be part of it.”
The Turkish currency isn’t having a great stretch, as the value has dropped greatly against the US dollar. Kerim explains that it changes the strategy an export implements for the season: “The situation with the Turkish lira affects all exporters their strategy, uncertainty is the nightmare of this business and the word uncertainty is very popular in Turkey these days. We’re trying execute our strategy carefully and try to stay in minimum amounts of risk, while ensure we not to drop our quality standards.”
Kerim hopes that the image his company has built with their apple export will give him an advantage when it comes to the cherry season: “As DFF, we want to continue our successful operation with cherries like we did in our apple season. We’re about to finish the apple operations and exported almost 400 containers of apples this year. This successful campaign will be helpful for us to find new customers for cherry as well, because our customers know our strengths with the apple season and trust us to deliver the same quality standards when it comes to our cherries. We will be very aggressive on prices of cherry this year and want be the desired brand for cherries,” he concludes.
For more information:
Alper Kerim
Demir Fresh Fruits
Tel: +90 532 514 2080
Email: alper@dff.com.tr
www.dff.com.tr