For almost three decades, the German family business Uralkaya has been supplying a wide variety of businesses, including the catering industry and food retail from North Rhine-Westphalia with fruit and vegetables and, in particular, mushrooms. "From oyster mushrooms and chanterelles to giant mushrooms: we can offer a lot of diversity," says Sertac Uralkaya. "We buy our products from the Netherlands, but partially also from Poland," says Sertac. The company's customers include both wholesalers and retailers, but particularly focus on the hotel and catering industry.
Sertac Uralkaya with his father and senior director Nayif Uralkaya
Large demand, small supply
Although Sertac is happy with a good demand, he cannot cover it completely. "In the summer, the demand was high but the supply was insufficient. Normally, we sell about 1,200 crates on average, which was not the case this year. We were able to get a large amount of product from Poland, but we simply cannot keep up with demand."
It is not as bad as 'disaster year' 2020, as Sertac calls it, either. The effects of the extreme weather fluctuations are also noticeable in terms of the shortage of products, but not as strongly as last year. "Costs have risen this year and in some places there has simply been a lack of calculation," says Sertac. "Mushrooms automatically become more expensive, we sell them for 2 euros a kilo. We are still working with plastic packs of 3 kg."
Exotics from Peru and Brazil
However, there is also demand for products such as avocados, pineapple, limes, watermelon, cherry tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, for example. "In addition, we also offer exotic fruit such as pitahaya (dragon fruit), carambola and passion fruit. We purchase these products from a middleman in the Netherlands, who imports the exotics from Peru and Brazil," concludes Sertac.
For more information:
Sertac Uralkaya 
Uralkaya Gemüse & Obst Großhandel Köln
Marktstr. 10
50968 Köln, Duitsland
+49 163 3597508
[email protected]
www.uralkaya.de