Press release…
Mehmet Ali Işık, Chairperson of Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association, who shared the information that Türkiye is the world’s dried fruit warehouse thanks to its suitable climatic features and fertile lands for dried fruit production, said, “With the joint action of the producers, we have brought the productivity, food safety and quality of the products forward in the dried fruit sector in recent years and we have formed the supply chain from the field to the shelf in three products.”
Underlining that the World Health Organization evaluates dried fruits, which are high in energy and rich in potassium, magnesium and calcium, in the category of healthy products, Işık explained, “We want to add these products to our lives so that we can raise healthy generations. While England, which is not a raisin producer, consumes 95 thousand tonnes of raisins and Germany 65 thousand tonnes of raisins, we consume only 43 thousand tonnes of raisins. In Europe, dried fruits are put in lunch boxes when children go to school and we need to gain this habit in our country. In the coming period, we will develop projects to increase domestic consumption as well as increase our exports.”
“We are hopeful for the 2022/23 season”
Expressing that they have just completed the dried apricot season, the last 1 month has been entered for seedless raisins and the season is about 2 months left for dried figs, Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association Chair Mehmet Ali Işık emphasized that according to the current situation, 3 products will end the year with exports of 1 billion 100 million dollars. He also stressed that they aim to leave behind a satisfactory season for producers and exporters.
Pointing out that the preparations for the 2022/23 season are continuing intensively, Işık added, “We do not expect a decrease in the yields of seedless raisins, dried apricots and dried figs in the 2022/23 season. Product quality is suitable for export too.”
“We aim to ramp up exports in the range of 10-15 percent in these three products and an export amount of 1 billion 250 million dollars”, he concluded…