Exporting strawberries from Turkey has its fair share of challenges at the moment, as it’s difficult to harvest and transport the produce. One Turkish exporter is managing and sees a rise in demand from Russia and would be open to shipping the strawberries to Europe as well.
Coskun Eren is the head of marketing for Turkish fresh produce exporter Eren Tarim. According to him, their strawberry season is going well, despite several challenges. “The strawberry season is going well, especially as Greece is having issues at the moment. This isn’t unlike the rest of the world, but there two main issues we are currently dealing with. First is the problem of procurement, which is difficult at the moment. If it rains you can’t harvest, if there is a curfew you can’t harvest, if the workers decide to go home you can’t harvest. And for strawberries, it has to be harvested, packed and shipped on the same day. The strawberry is a very delicate fruit in terms of procurement.”
“The second issue is the challenge of logistics, if there is a problem at the border, the strawberry will be spoiled. A four to five day delay will be enough to spoil the produce, so it is very tricky to export at the moment, but we are still managing. I would humbly suggest any potential buyer to do business with experienced companies in these times. The issues we have on a daily basis, and not just for strawberries, require an established team to deal with them.” Eren stated.
According to Eren, demand has been quite high in certain regions, but Eren Tarim would still be able to supply Europe as well, if the demand is there. “We see a strong demand coming from Russia and Belarus at the moment. We’d be open to shipping to the European markets as well, if there are any requests. Last year we have shipped to Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. Our past experience there helps, should they want strawberries again this year, as there are high pre-payment requirements and the situation is delicate at the moment. Branching out to new markets would be risky at this time.”
As the strawberry season isn’t over yet, there are still a lot of shipments to be exported. Eren Tarim has a separate department for logistics and they’ve been handling the situation quite well: “Strawberry volumes are picking up at the moment, we are shipping one or two trucks every week at the moment, but if demand increases we have the capability to do more. It’s hard to compare anything to previous seasons, as some clients don't even work this year. However we still have a lot of volumes to ship until the season is over. Surprisingly we are doing quite well in terms of logistics. Despite the fact that our logistics team is working from home, they seem to have everything under control. Having a separate department for logistics sure helps in this situation.” Eren concludes.
For more information
Coskun Eren
Eren Tarim
Tel: +90 533 695 5802
Email: [email protected]
www.erentarim.com
