Lemons will kick of season Turkish lemon season. In the words of Coskun Eren from Turkish exporter of produce Eren Eren, the beginning of the lemon harvest is a few weeks away “Our initial item for the season of citrus will be that of Meyer lemons. They are almost ready to harvest and we anticipate an export license to be issued between 5 and 10 September. It could be delayed by a few days, but we’re getting close. In the coming weeks, we’ll be continuing by focusing on the Interdonato lemons towards October’s end. Star Ruby grapefruits, Dobeshi and Mihowase Mandarines along with Fukumato as well as Navelina oranges in the first week of October.”

After a fairly poor season, in terms of production, Eren is expecting a more successful year. This is not just for Turkish cultivators, but also for those with Spanish sources also. “The quantities of the lemons differ and varied, with Meyers with good volumes as well as Interdonato lemons having average volume the season of this year. In general, I think we’ll be able to see better volumes than last year. This is usually the case since this year’s crop was extremely limited in quantity. I think that this year Spain is also having a larger yield, and we’re in the right direction.”

The temperatures have risen to the 50-degree Celsius threshold in some regions of Turkey. According to Eren the author, this has affected the production of crops, but it’s not as significant as it is possible to imagine: “The heatwave in Turkey is an issue this august. In a typical day, when temperatures were 38 and 39 C, you’ll feel blessed and temperatures would sometimes rise as high as 44C and sometimes 46C within Adana and the Mersin as well as Adana regions. On some days, you were unable to leave the house, much less perform work outdoors. It obviously impacted the crops by affecting the speed of cultivation and colour. The early lemons are generally more yellow and the earlier spring season’s beginning was delayed for five to ten days. Normally, in comparison to prior times, we would begin this week. However, temperatures that were hot pushed the time back just a more. The product is waiting to grow on the field. It’s not an enormous problem, because we’ve got an option to work with light colors in our facilities.”

Eren admits that on some days there was a heat wave that made it impossible to let workers out working in fields. The harvesting process was completed by noon to avoid heat-related hours in the morning, Eren explains. “Of Of course, on some days it was not possible to have people be outside due to obvious reasons However, most of the harvesting is completed by noon. This means that the consequences of the summer heat wave are less in the most important work. There may be a slower pace of work than normal, but this isn’t anything close to the end of production or changing the amount of food we consume.”

The competition will be fierce this year as others that are located in the Mediterranean have large crop expectations also. Eren adds: “Our biggest competitor is clearly Spain next comes Italy and Greece then South Africa and Argentina in the same order. Spain will likely to produce a higher harvest this year, roughly similar to ours which means competition should be fierce. If Spain produces a higher yield generally Italy as well as Greece also have larger crops too, unless an bizarre event occurred in those countries. This year, all people will be eating lemons.”

Eren is optimistic that the upcoming season will be better as last year’s was. “Last year’s season was tough trying to locate goods, and price was high and demand was erratic. We are expecting to have a more normal year with more predictability. There is a great crop that is quite good and usually does not have a negative end result. We’re able to deal with the heat, and are prepared to begin production in the near future. In this year’s edition, we included a top-of-the-line photographic quality sorting system in order to minimize the chance of human error and accelerate production. This will enable us to meet the exact specifications for quality without having to compromise production capabilities. The process is already half way through our entire retail lemon program and have been working on completing them.” the CEO concluding.

More information is available here:

Coskun Eren

Eren

Tel: +90 533 695 5802

Email: coskun@erentarim.com

www.freshanatolia.com

Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies