Turkey Stepping up effort in export Agriculture products

Fresh Apple

Turkiye

Market & Price Trends

Innovation & Technology

Shelly Chen

Published Nov 8, 2020

Turkey recently stepped up its efforts to expand and diversify its agricultural export markets in Asia. It has been granted permits to export grapefruit and lemons to Japan, cherries to China and South Korea, and grapes, pomegranates, cucumbers, fresh peppers, eggplants and lettuce to Seychelles since forming a trade committee to expand agricultural markets in Asia in 2003.

According to Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan in May 2020, the Ministry entered the final stages of receiving approval to export fresh fruits to Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and other countries. Receiving clearance for exports of Turkish milk and dairy products to China has been dubbed one of the biggest achievements of these efforts, Pekcan said.

She said they are expecting citrus fruit, apples, grapes and pomegranate products to follow dairy exports to China. Turkey has also been in talks with South Korea and Singapore to export eggs. Its fruit producers have recently entered Thailand's $210 million apple market and soon look to add the Philippines to the list.

Currently, most of Turkey's apples are exported to India, while the fruit has also found buyers in the Middle Eastern, European and Russian markets. Turkey ranks third in the world for apple production with 3 million tons annually. Pekcan had also said the Ministry is expecting to receive approval to export grapefruit and pomegranates to South Korea; peaches, cucumbers, grapes, pears, apricots and tomatoes to the Philippines; citrus fruits, grapes and cherries to Australia; and fresh peppers, tomatoes, melons, figs and pomegranates to the United States.