The cherry production of Alanar will be grown in three regions in the upcoming season, says Yigit Gokyigit, commercial coordinator for the Turkish fresh produce exporter: "The Turkish cherry season will start from the Izmir region, as per usual. We expect it to start in late May this year. Alanar works with contracted growers, but also grows cherries in its own orchards. We grow cherries in three different regions in our own orchards in Turkey. These orchards are located in Canakkale, Afyon and Manisa. We have approximately 700 hectares of orchards for our fruit range of cherries, figs, apricots, plums and blueberries. Cherry is the main fruit we grow, with nearly 200 hectares of orchards. Although the main variety grown in Turkey is Z-900, we mainly grow the Regina variety."
As the Turkish exporter still has orchards that are maturing, the production of cherries is only expected to increase in the coming year, Gokyigit explains. "Alanar still has young cherry trees that will generate more volume every year. The company was able to harvest up to 500 tons in previous years annually, in fact this year, our expected volume is over 600 tons. We foresee to harvest 1,000 tonnes in 2026 and our annually crop will increase up to 1,800 tonnes by 2029. We are also so happy that we will be expecting more larger sizes such as 26+ and 28+ from our orchards this year compared to before."
Thankfully, the weather seems to be playing nicer than a couple of years ago. As a result, Gokyigit expects a very positive cherry season: "Not only our orchards, but contracted growers of the company around the country expect a good season this year as well. We had one of the worst weather impacted seasons two years ago in 2022, which made country have one of the lowest crop volumes in decades. However, in 2024 the weather is going perfect for cherry so far, which makes all the growers looking forward to a promising season this year."
The Red Sea crisis will not impact most of Alanar's fruits, as they send produce mostly by air. But Gokyigit does expect that the products sent by sea might have to find alternative destinations. "Pacific Asia has been increasing its demand for cherries lately. We see similar interest from the Gulf region. We're one of the major fresh fruit exporters of Turkey to Asia, and since we grow, pack and export niche fruits such as figs, cherries and blueberries, we send them all via air. This in turn means that we've not been affected by sea freight logistics issues as much. That being said, we do send our apricots and plums via sea due to their longer shelf-life. With the current difficulties, it may result in us not sending these products to Asia this upcoming season."
"We export our cherries to over 40 countries from North America to Africa. Our major market is Europe as usual, mainly Germany I would say. We expect to send more fruits to various regions this year, including the Middle East, Central Europe and the United Kingdom," Gokyigit concludes.
For more information:
Yigit Gokyigit
Alanar
Mobile: +90 549 804 87 56
Email: [email protected]
www.alanar.com.tr