Brief market update and useful information on dried apricots industry.
As you may already know, big frost at the end of March caused a big damage on apricot yields. At first, importers did not believe how serious was the situation and some of them are late to take action and tried to fulfill their needs from local importers who have stocks on hand.
But now it’s clear that this years crop will be only %10 of last crop, which is only 10,000 MT (2013 Crop was almost 100,000 MT). Together with the current stocks, total supply won’t exceed 30-40,000 MT.
Current apricot prices are increasing everyday without a pause. Buyers who waited for lower prices unfortunately forced to buy at higher prices. Prices are still going high and market expected not to get stable until Christmas and not to get lower until 2015 crop. Besides, Turkish Lira getting stronger (12.05.2014 – USD/TRY 2.08) and it also supports increasing prices in a negative way.
We strongly suggest buyers in the market to make their plans accordingly and take action as early as possible. Few months later, market unavailability will be also another major issue together with the high prices.
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