Turkish tomatoes find their way to European and Arabian retail

“There is a lot of demand for our tomatoes and our total production volume ends up being exported through contracts. We hardly have any tomatoes left in stock,” says Export Manager Feridun Kahraman of Başyazıcıoğlu Tarım.



According to Kahraman, the supermarkets are asking for better quality and larger sizes. The actual volumes depend on the type of contract that was set up. He said, some customers ask for weekly shipments and the company currently has the capacity to send out four to five trucks per week.

Başyazıcıoğlu Tarim currently has two large greenhouses for tomatoes in the regions of Boğazlıyan and Nevşehir. Both locations have a production of 10 tons per days. The season of the company lasts from March until December.



“Turkish tomatoes currently have a good position in the global market. This actually goes for all types of Turkish produce - we’re doing quite well at the moment, even though we have a lot of competition from other Turkish tomato growers,” concludes Kahraman.

Their main product is vine tomatoes, although the company grows beef tomatoes and cherry tomatoes as well. Başyazıcıoğlu Greenhouse has already got the Global Gap Certificate – ITU. Within the scope of Global Gap and Good Agricultural Application, the production in our greenhouses is done on hydroponic cocopeat and the pollination is done by bumblebees.



The company is mainly exporting to European markets, like the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria and Denmark. Before the crisis between Russia and Turkey happened, they also sent good volumes to Russia. Başyazıcıoğlu recently started a trial with Saudi Arabia where the response of customers has been great.