Turkish Apricots – Market Update

Total exports from Turkey of dried Apricots in January were 5,337 tons. This is a decrease in volume of 1,386 tons. This 21% decrease in volume comes as no surprise given recent Apricot Pricing. Year to date total export from Turkey come to 51,730 tons, in comparison to 50,035 tons this time last year. This is a 1,695 ton increase in volume. This goes to how shape the halt has been in demand for Turkish Apricots recently.

Packers are struggling to supply anything smaller than size 4 Apricots at present and nothing larger than size 4 available at all. It is believed that all new crop is now fully committed, which shows how scarce the supply really is. Many distributors hope that demand will ease later in the year and more stock may become available due to cancellations and people postponing commitments to new crop as they did last year.

For the past month, the Turkish Lira has become steady to around 13.5 TRY to the USD. The official Inflation figure in Turkey now sits at 48%. This information combined with increased wages in Turkey has resulted in operating costs increasing for many growers and packers. This along with FX rates and availability has resulted in extremely poor market conditions.