The preparations for the upcoming Turkish fig season have been completed and the weather seems to be playing nice, says Akin Soyleyen, marketing manager for Turkish exporter Aksun: “Last year was a good year for us in terms of figs supply and quality. This year, if everything goes as planned, we are expecting much of the same. The weather is favorable right now, but you never know what the future brings these days when it comes to weather predictions. Our preparations are complete for this year since we are operating a separate packhouse located in Bursa to be close to the source and better customer reach.”
The Global climate change has been very challenging, Soyleyen emphasizes. “The current global climate change makes every season a challenge for growers and packers. We had its adverse effects last year with our citrus supply. The extreme hot conditions during the preseason caused supply problems, leading to lower availability of the product. We are expecting similar fig volumes to last year. Hopefully the weather will also be similar resulting in a prolonged season with cool days and nights. This helped us to extend our season last year. If the supply won’t get affected by the weather until the harvest begins; we can expect a similar pricing structure as last year.”
The situation with the Turkish lira has definitely had an impact on how Turkish produce exporter approach business. Next to the benefits, there was also a lot of uncertainties according to Soyleyen: “The Turkish currency has been like a rollercoaster since the beginning of 2023. This had benefits to the exporters, no doubt, but let’s not forget the volatility in anything is only good for a short period, since due this volatility we are unable to calculate our costs or raw material supplies. Every day the suppliers also must adjust their costs, causing uncertainty in the supply chain. It’s chaos when you want to go out there to buy your much needed raw materials when there is this kind of a market.”
Aksun is looking forward to the fig season, as the company believes the Turkish product has unique properties. “There are certain products that have no substitute in the market. One of those products are the Bursa black figs. There is no match to their size and taste in the world. Our aim is to introduce this special product to more and more countries every year. With the right marketing, we were able to increase our sales especially in Southeast Asia over the past ten years. We can do the same in other countries and continents, and that is exactly what we plan to do this year; reaching people who never tried figs before,” Soyleyen concludes.
