Due to the effects of climate change, Turkey produces fewer pomegranates this season, says Yigit Gokyigit, marketing coordinator for Turkish fresh produce exporter Alanar: “This year, we were able to produce less pomegranates in general in Turkey compared to past seasons, due to the negative effect of the climate change. In fact, I am very glad that as a company, we’ve been able to fulfil our customers’ need despite the lower volumes. Alanar’s pomegranates all follow the pesticide residue levels required by the European Union and even those required by the supermarkets, which have more challenging expectations in terms of pesticide residue levels. We’re very happy to see that our fruits arrived in a great state at our business partners all around the world.”
Gokyigit feels that their biggest challenge this year has been dealing with inflation in Turkey, as it has made the entire operation more costly. “We export our pomegranates to western Europe, mainly. We’ve been able to enter new markets this year in both eastern and northern Europe as well. Pomegranates have always been a demanded fruit for years. However there have been challenges. Next to the slight change on the currency exchange rate, inflation is one of the most challenging subjects for exporters in our country. This translates to higher costs in addition to the global increase on shipping prices, which makes it tough.”
Once the pomegranate season is over, Alanar will change its focus towards their new seasons of summerfruit in 2023: “We will be exporting pomegranates until the end of winter. After that, we’ll be getting ready to for our summer fruits cherry, apricot, fig and plum then. Next year, we will be exporting Sugar Apricots, 100% grown in Alanar orchards, in addition to the current varieties we have. Turkey had a hard cherry season this year. The harvest was low in some regions and the season was very short compared to previous years. Our fig season was quite good, as demand was higher than before.”
“At Alanar, we are already getting ready for the 2023 seasons. As a result of the investments made, especially in the last five years in our plantations, we will be harvesting much more fruit every year from our own orchards. This makes us one of the largest cherry, fig, apricot and plum growers in Europe.” Gokyigit concludes.
Source - https://www.freshplaza.com
