Production of pomegranates is increasing in both India and Turkey. Growers from both countries have increased their supplies of the fruit in recent years, which has caused prices to come down.
India
“The current Indian pomegranate production is increasing every year by roughly 20 to 25 percent,” said Kaushal Khakhar from Kay Bee Exports. “The local demand continues to increase because of more awareness about the health benefits. However, the higher production is not always translating into higher supply as some farms are losing supply due to bacterial blight.” With more production, prices have trended downward over the last several years.
This season's favorable weather meant quality of the fruit was good. India's unique climate and growing regions mean the country can supply pomegranates all year, and recent good weather was a boon for the country's winter production.
The country's main variety is the Bhagwa, which Kaushal described as a good-eating variety that has a balanced sugar and acid ratio, which gives the fruit a sweet taste as well as a long shelf life. The Bhagwa makes up the majority of fruit exported and consumed domestically. On the export front, Europe, the Middle East and Asia are the target markets, though the U.S. has been of interest to the country's exporters.
Due to year-round production, exports compete with several other countries on the world market, including the U.S., Israel, Turkey, Iran, Peru and South Africa. Despite this competition, the unique characteristics of the Bhagwa variety has allowed the country's suppliers to carve out a good niche on the world stage.
“The trend in the market is towards pomegranate arils as it is a value-added product and consumers appreciate the convenience of a ready-to-eat product,” added Kaushal. “We have started a factory for pomegranate arils and have shipped about 300 tons of arils since inception.”
Turkey
As with India, Turkey's growers have continued to expand pomegranate production. About 10 to 15 years ago, many growers decided to plant pomegranates, and a continually-increasing production has kept supplies up.
“There's about 20 percent more volume right now compared to the previous year,” said Esra Söyleyen, Marketing manager of Aksun. The main variety grown is the Hicaz, though about fifteen percent of the country's production is of the Wonderful variety. Esra credits part of the popularity of pomegranates to the health benefits of the fruit as well as the ease of storage it offers shippers. If the fruit is harvested and stored properly, she noted, shippers can have the fruit on hand from October through March.
“Business is growing for pomegranates in Aksun and main reason for that is the pest-controlled fruits,” she added. “There are several exporters who are trying to sell the fruit at cheaper prices, but they are not able to give totally safe, 100 percent traceability-covered fruits like we do.” Those standards allow Aksun to directly supply supermarkets, which provides significant price stability throughout the season.
“Generally, the sales price of pomegranates start at five Euro per box and go up to eight, nine, or even 10 Euro by the end of the season,” said Esra Söyleyen. “It’s not changing from year to year a lot because there isn't any other pomegranate planting in Turkey. It was an expensive fruit 10 or 15 years ago, but now it has a standard price and a standard, good market, so both growers and exporters are happy.” Competition with Spanish exports also keeps prices in check.
Target export markets for Turkish growers include Russia, Europe, United Arab Emirates and the U.K., though Aksun mostly focuses on Europe and the U.K. Esra noted that the way Turkish exporters try to stand out in those markets is by highlighting the appearance and taste of Turkish fruit.
“We are also serious suppliers to pomegranate salad and juice factories and we are covering their out of season periods with over 2,000 tons of industrial sales,” he added. “In addition to that, we sell about 4,000 tons of fruit under seasonal agreements, which brings the total annual sales to 5,000 tons for the conventional line. We will be moving to a new factory in summer 2016, and, because pomegranate is a growing market for Aksun, we will have new line soon.” And by the help of new facility we will be able to keep more fruits for longer periods with our own capacity.
