Fruits and vegetables: a thriving market

The fruit and vegetable industry plays an important role in Turkey’s economy, making up the largest part of the agricultural sector and a sizeable portion of the country’s exports

The great variety of fruits and vegetables grown in Turkey is remarkable. The country cultivates around 18.2 million tonnes of fruit and 28.5 million tonnes of vegetables annually. It is the world-leading grower of figs, cherries, quinces and apricots, the second-largest producer of melons and cucumbers, the number three producer of apples, tomatoes, watermelons and mandarins, the fourthlargest pepper producer and the fifthlargest provider of aubergines. Of the 18.2 million tonnes of fruit grown last year, citrus occupies a large segment of about a fifth in volume at approximately 3.6 million tonnes, with oranges being the dominant variety, along with soft citrus such as clementines, tangerines and mandarins, as well as lemon and grapefruit. Other popular fruits, for both domestic consumption and export, including grapes, melons, cherries and currants, followed by varieties of grape-like fruits, as well as pomefruits such as apples and pears, and stone fruits including peaches, nectarines, plums, lychees and mangoes. Turkish quinces have lately become potential export fruits as well. Another export product are nuts and various dried fruits, including raisins, and the demand for organic products has also created new export opportunities for Turkey. In the vegetable sector, Turkey produces and exports mainly tomatoes, which take the first place in production with an output of 12 million tonnes annually, followed by potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, beans, aubergines and squashes. Turkey’s total exports of fruits and vegetables were 3.5 million tonnes in 2016 after 3.3 million tonnes in the previous year, according to the Mediterranean Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Exporters’ Association, one of the most influential exporters’ unions. Citrus exports rose to 1.6 million tonnes in 2016, of which Turkey exported 450,458 tonnes of oranges and 387,641 tonnes of lemons, followed by 183,328 tonnes of grapefruits. Exports of non-citrus fruits amounted to around 811,000 tonnes. The volume of vegetable exports last year was 1.1 million tonnes, dominated by tomatoes with 480,070 tonnes, peppers with 98,604 tonnes and cucumbers with 48,090 tonnes. The entire export value of Turkish fruits and vegetables stands at more than $2.6 billion annually, according to the Agriculturalists Association of Turkey. Various important target markets for Turkish fruit and vegetables are Iraq, which prefers Turkish onions, the Middle East and Europe, with Germany, the UK, Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine being the dominating export markets, and Turkey benefiting from its customs union with the European Union and other preferential trade agreements. Overall, Turkish fruits and vegetables are shipped to more than 50 countries worldwide. Exporters have begun to enhance their market shares in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and are making inroads to China, while lemons are exported as far as Japan. On the EU market, Greece, Spain, and Portugal are Turkey’s rivals, but Turkey remains highly competitive in terms of export performance and pricing. This is also true in terms of health and environmental considerations, since Turkey’s fruit producers comply with both legislative and market requirements of their export markets with standards such as ISO 9001, the international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management systems, ISO 22000 and HACCP, the international food safety standards, as well as the GAP and GLOBALGAP standards that are indicators of good agricultural practices. Throughout Turkey, there are currently around 60 exporter unions that have been successfully adopting these requirements, a strategy that has a substantial impact on the world fresh fruit and vegetable trade.

THE GREAT VARIETY OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES GROWN IN TURKEY IS REMARKABLE