There is an increasing interest in organic pomegranates in many countries and Iran wants to take advantage of this trend. Meanwhile, Greece is suffering the impact of low productivity and the country’s financial problems. Also growing in popularity are pomegranate arils, appreciated for their health properties; a trend on which Indian producers will be able to capitalise. For their part, Turkish pomegranates are carving a niche in the European premium market.
Greek pomegranate season finished earlier than expected
For the Greek company A.C. Elios, the pomegranate season, which usually lasts from September up until early March, has finished earlier than expected. According to George Mitrakos, "Due to the weather conditions it resulted in low productivity. We normally start with the Akko in September, then we harvest the main variety, the (sweeter) Afrata, and we finish the season with the Wonderful. It has been a good season for us, but we have mostly sold the fruit in the Greek domestic market, because in addition to not having enough to export, we suffered the consequences of the capital controls and had issues to get the necessary supply of packaging materials.”
The situation is also starting to become difficult in the domestic market, given the current strikes, but fortunately, prices have remained at a similar level as last year which is good, as it isn’t too expensive, and the fruit is becoming popular for juice making. We have consequently developed a strategic plan for next season to produce pomegranate juice,” affirms Mitrakos.
He also assures to be really happy about the quality of the fruit, despite the fact that calibers were a little smaller, because of the weather conditions, but in terms of flavor the quality has been really good.” In any case, he explains that, from now until the end of the summer, Greek consumers will only have access to imported pomegranates, mostly from South America.
