Harvest starting for dried figs and official crop forecast announced, hazelnuts increasing sharply and dried mulberries in upwards trend. Find latest news in food industry, prepared by BATA FOOD Turkey. Below you can find brief market updates for these products and we will continue to publish latest dried fruits and nuts industry news. Feel free to follow us on social media to get industry updates directly.
Dried Figs
Official crop size for Turkish (Smyrna) Dried Fig is estimated as 72.000 tons with ±5% error margin.
Harvest size is 8% lower but crop quality is better and quantity which can be processed and shipped is expected to be almost the same amount as last crop.
Fruit development is a week earlier this year and first shipment date may be earlier accordingly. Tomorrow (Aug 25, 2016), meeting will be held at Aegean Exporters Association and it is very possible that first shipment date will be announced after this meeting.
Regarding quality of new crop Turkish Dried Figs;
- Burst open fruit will be less
- Sunburn seen on figs due to higher weather temperatures and low rains
- There is no major effect of diseases
- “Endosepsis” – which cause fruit rotting inside – is not an important issue
- In general we have a better quality crop
Dried White Mulberries
Raw material levels for Turkey origin mulberries continue to increase at the farmers side. Crop quality is good in general but color is darker compared to last crop.
Hazelnuts
Sharp increase in the hazelnut market continue without a stop. Farmers still holding back and waiting for higher prices, it’s been said that price expectation is 15 TL / kg (USD/TL 2.94) or above for the inshell hazelnuts.
Current prices are 12.75 TL / kg at Ordu Commodity Exchange and 14.16 TL / kg at Giresun Commodity Exchange for inshell hazelnuts. While prices go high, Fiskobirlik made a call to farmers that they are open to buy whole hazelnut stock in the market at 14.00 TL / kg, which is even higher than the market level.
Arguments still continue between processors and and farmers about crop size and quality. Processors mostly think that announced crop size is not close to the real crop size and quantity should be definitely higher.
We expect prices to decline on September and suggest waiting for couple weeks to have clearer idea about the market.
Cashews
Cashew market is very firm and prices going higher. Prices reached almost 2 years high and there is no signal for price fall.
Warehouses in Europe is mostly empty and India is still a big buyer at these levels for their domestic market.