On 19-21 March, the third edition of FreshAntalya took place in the south of Turkey, held on an area of 9,000m2 at the Antalya Expo Center.
The event attracted some 6,000 professional visitors from 19 countries, with organiser Anfas reporting an increase in the number of international exhibitors, from six last year to over 20 this year, including players from Chile, Italy and Poland.
Representatives from the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) were present to promote Chilean fresh fruit among distributors and supermarket chains.
“The aim of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association's participation in this fair is to deepen commercial relationships with the import sector and the wholesale market, to tell them about the differentiating characteristics of the Chilean industry,” said Christian Carvajal, CFFA's marketing manager for Europe and Asia.
Turkey is without doubt an emerging market for Chilean exports. Last season, Chile shipped 3,800 tonnes to Turkey, with green apples, red apples and kiwifruit making up the bulk.
Chile has also just completed the fourth round of negotiations to agree a free trade agreement with Turkey. The FTA seeks, among other things, to reduce the currently high import tariffs, which can represent 30-50 per cent of the price of some products.
Speaking of next year’s event, Mehmet Dükkanci of Anfas said that the aim was to turn FreshAntalya into a convenient meeting point for players based in the eastern Mediterranean region, since the Turkish visa is more easily attainable than the Schengen visa for Europe.
“Next year, we plan to have a lot more smaller booths,” he said, “and we will perhaps supply interpreters for, say, Russian clients, so that they can readily communicate with Turkish visitors and exhibitors. The aim is to make FreshAntalya an ideal meeting point and this strategy will help us to achieve this.”
