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Press release…
Dried fig exporters expect a more constructive cooperation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to solve the aflatoxin and ochratoxin problem.
Stating that aflatoxin and ochratoxin formation increased in dried fig exports in the 2024/25 season due to climate change, Mehmet Ali Işık, Chair of the Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters Association, unveiled that at first, their products started to be destroyed in export markets.
“We encountered these problems in Spain, France, Italy and Bulgaria. After negotiations with the European Union, we stopped the destruction of our products and ensured their return to Türkiye. This time we have started to experience problems in bringing our products into the country. We held meetings with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Izmir, and Deputy General Directors came from Ankara. The problems could not be resolved yet,” Işık said.
Pointing out that they demand a meeting to resolve the problems, Işık explained, “We should cooperate with the state to solve the problems, but we have not been able to make any progress. As exporters, we are trying to export with great devotion. We achieved a 4 percent increase in exports to France, one of the markets where we have the biggest problem. Today, if fig exports have reached 70 thousand tonnes and production has reached 90 thousand tonnes, this success has come thanks to a handful of exporters. Climate change is a global problem. For the solution of the problem, producers, merchants, traders, exporters, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry should act together. We organised a workshop to solve the problems in grapes. We will hold a Fig Workshop to solve the problems in figs, and all parties will act jointly.”
Speaking at the 2024 ordinary financial general assembly meeting of the Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters‘ Association at the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, Işık added, “The EU is working on the possibility of reducing the sulfur rate of 2000 ppm in dried apricots to 1500 ppm, but the Ministry, our Association and all stakeholders continue to work on the protection of 2000 ppm. We have warned that 2000 ppm is the lower limit in apricot and if it is lowered below this limit, dried apricot will get a mottled colour. We are trying to explain to the EU together with the Ministry by receiving scientific reports from universities that this limit should not be reduced.”
