Following the difficulties of the last two years, Turkish cherry exporters are much more optimistic about the current season thanks to favourable weather conditions.
“The last cherryseason was bad in terms of marketing prices,” said Aydin Turkec, chief executive of Aydin-based producer Nilay Tarim, “but this year our expectation is that market sales will improve significantly.”
One of the reasons for such optimism is Mr Turkec’s belief that, due to unfavourable climatic conditions, Spain and Italy will experience a drop in production volumes, thereby increasing demand for Turkish cherries on the European market.
“Less than 5 per cent of our production area has been affected by the weather, so we are having an excellent cherry-growing season this year, and we expect to gain better prices on the markets of the European Union,” he revealed.
“The winter and spring seasons were favourable for cherries,” added Kerim Taner of exporter Alara.“We experienced cold temperatures with some snow during the winter months, and rain during the spring. So far, the quality is expected to be very good.'
According to both exporters, this season was expected to begin at least one week earlier than last year's campaign.
Turkey currently stands as the second largest cherry exporter in the world after the US, claiming a 16 per cent share of the market and exporting some 51,000 tonnes in 2009.
The vast majority is marketed in Europe, with its main market, Germany, importing 14,742 tonnes last year.
