Yigit Gokyigit, marketing coordinator for the Turkish fruit exporter, states demand for the Bursa Black figs grows every year: “We expect a great season for our figs, which should start in week 34. We expect proper volumes and quality this year, which is good as demand for figs increase every year. Alanar is the leading fig exporter of Turkey, while providing figs to its customers 365 days a year through various variety of figs they grow via their contracted orchards around the world. Last year we exported our fruits to 31 different countries all around the World. I believe we will be expanding our sales to new markets this year, due to the huge demand we receive for Bursa Black Fig, which is our most popular variety. Demand is increasing especially in new markets we join.”
After having made some serious investments in both orchards and machinery, Alanar expects to fully accommodate their main markets in Europe this season. “We are in touch with our business partners for the fig season which will start in next couple of weeks. First impressions we received is that Germany will be our major market again this year. Because of the impact of new investments we made on machinery and facility, we also expect to have increasing amount of demand from France and the United Kingdom. We introduced our figs to France last year and they were very appreciated by the consumers. The Alanar brand is very well known in the United Kingdom. This is why we’ll be exporting directly to the UK and we expect increasing sales there. An increase in sales is also expected in the Asian and Canadian markets.” Gokyigit explains.
However Europe being Alanar’s major market doesn’t mean they have full focus on another territory, Gokyigit says. The Asian market is a solid one for the Turkish figs: “Due to the whole covid-19 situation in the world, we expect higher prices, despite the good volumes we’re seeing this season. I guess this is to be expected in all markets, as prices overall are increasing globally. We’ll have our focus on developing our operations in the Asian market again this year, as the Alanar figs are very popular in this region. I think biggest challenge will be Covid-19 in terms of consumption. As Alanar, we are a grower-packer-exporter company and our operations were not affected at all, because we took precautions on very early stage. However we have no influence on the decisions of the consumer, so we have no idea how this will be affected by covid. We’ll simply have to find out once the season starts.”
“The fig is one of the staple fruits of Alanar. As the leading exporter of this fruit, we are making investments on figs to ensure we stay on top. We have ongoing investments in our fig orchards. We also moved to a new facility in Iznik, in the Bursa region of Turkey, where we will be packing figs and chestnut only. We also invested in the most advanced technology fig sorting machine, made in France. We’re looking forward to provide the best possible quality figs with best possible service to our business partners around the world.” Gokyigit concludes.
