ANKARA: Turkey’s fresh fruit and vegetable exports have been declining in recent years and claims about the reselling of hazardous returned exports in the domestic market must be investigated, Turkish Association of Agriculturalists (TZD) head İbrahim Yetkin has said.
Fresh fruits and vegetables worth $1.5 billion were exported in the first nine months of 2014, but this figure decreased to around $1.3 billion in the same period of this year, Yetkin said in a written statement.
“Turkey’s fresh fruit and vegetable exports have recently been declining. While our exports to Russia have been increasing in terms of volume, exports to other markets have been decreasing. Due to the general declining trend in exports, we have seen a drop in the value basis too,” he stated.
Yetkin also noted that four tons of exported pomegranates and 20 tons of tomatoes were sent back from Russia to Turkey after claims of hazardous insects inside them. “We saw a similar case last October and around 40 tons of exported pomegranates were sent back to Turkey.
Russia recently sent some 23.5 tons of tomatoes and 23 tons of grapefruits back to Turkey, claiming hazardous insects inside them. Such cases were seen over claims of insecticides in the previous years, but these incidents were overcome through several measures. Recent claims about the entrance of returned exports to the domestic market are very serious and need to be investigated,” he added.
