The Turkish tomato grower and exporter Başyazıcıoğlu Tarım has struck up a supply deal with the European retail chain Lidl where agreements were similar to supermarket chains like Magnit in Russia and Gippo in Belarus.
“There is a lot of demand for tomatoes. Our total production volume ends up being exported through contracts. We hardly need to have any tomatoes in stock,” says Export Manager Feridun Kahraman of Başyazıcıoğlu Tarım.
According to Kahraman, the supermarket sector is asking for great quality and larger sizes where the actual volumes depend on the type of contract that was set up. He said, some customers ask for weekly shipments and the company currently have the capacity to send four to five trucks per week.
Başyazıcıoğlu Tarim currently has two large greenhouses for tomatoes in the regions of Boğazlıyan and Nevşehir. Their season started this month and expected to end in December.
“Turkish tomatoes currently have a good position in the global market. This actually goes for all types of Turkish produce, we’re doing quite well at the moment. We’ve got a lot of competition from other Turkish tomato growers,” concludes Kahraman.
The main type of tomato that is being produced are vine tomatoes, although the company grows beef tomatoes and cherry tomatoes as well. Başyazıcıoğlu Greenhouse has already got the Global Gap Certificate – ITU With in the scope of Global Gap and Good Agricultural Application the production in our Greenhouse held by Soiless Agriculture (Cocopeat) and the pollination is by Bumblebees.
The company is mainly exporting to European markets like the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria and Denmark. Before the crisis between Russia and Turkey happened, they also sent good volumes to Russia. Başyazıcıoğlu recently started a trial with Saudi Arabia where the response of customers has been great.
