ANKARA: Agriculturists Association of Turkey (TZD) President Ibrahim Yetkin, stated that Turkish fresh fruit and vegetable exports have entered a decreasing trend in recent years.
In a statement Yetkin expressed that last year between January and September, Turkey exported 1.5 billion dollars worth of fresh fruit and vegetables, in the same period this year, that amount has fallen to 1.270 billion dollars. “In the same period last year, 493,000 tons of tomatoes were exported, this has fallen to 430,000 tons this year,” he said.
Yetkin explains that Russia is Turkey’s biggest fruit and vegetable market, “Turkey’s fresh fruit and vegetable exports entered a downward trend in the last period. While this year our exports to the Russian market have been increasing in terms of volume, exports to other markets have been decreasing. Yet because of problems being experienced in exports, we have seen a drop in the value basis too.”
He added: “Under the current circumstances the fresh fruit exports to Russia are cause for concern. Around a week ago Russia returned 4 tons of pomegranates and 20 tons of tomatoes to Turkey on the basis that hazardous insects were found on them. Mediterranean fruit fly pests were detected in the pomegranates and western flower thrips in the tomatoes. A similar situation happened in October when almost 40 tons of pomegranate were returned. In the last three days 23.5 tons of tomatoes and 23 tons of grapefruit were not allowed to enter Russia due to the presence of western flower thrips and Mediterranean fruit fly. In past years such events led to the use of more insecticides. Effective measures were taken to put a stop to this and there has not been a significant case recently. Recent claims about the entrance of returned exports to the domestic market are very serious and need to be investigated,” he concluded.
