With energy prices in Europe increasing, the production of tomatoes slowed down. However, this hasn’t led to as much demand from European countries as Turkish produce exporter Compass Fruit had hoped for, says export director Sibel Karakay: “Since the end of October, our tomato shipments have been rather intense. We’ve shipped solid volumes to countries such as Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. We were hoping for better opportunities in the European market, but these have not presented itself just yet. We weren’t able to reach the level of exports we desired, mostly due to the weather conditions, price policies as well as dealing with tomatoes from competing markets.”
Karakay states that they did recently see more demand from the Netherlands. “We’re not giving up by a long shot though, as we do expect that in the coming weeks, demand for tomatoes will increase in Europe, especially in the Netherlands. We have seen demand from the Netherlands increase as of last week and we expect this trend to continue, and as such there will be more Turkish tomatoes on the Dutch dining tables in the upcoming period. Since our production is sufficient, I think we will meet the demand without any issues.”
The increase in energy prices are a reality in Compass Fruit’s home country as well, which does have an impact in the costs of labor. Karakay explains. “In Turkey, just as in the rest of Europe, energy costs have significantly increased, which in turn has increased both labor and production costs. With the increase in the value given to production in our country, our agricultural lands will be made more profitable and our value in production and the market will increase. It hasn’t reached levels where we’re unable to do our job without making a profit. So hopefully the demand from Europe will increase - we know we’re ready for it!”
For more information:
Sibel Karakaya
Compass Fruit
Tel: +90 541 257 5898
Email: [email protected]
www.compassfruit.com