Today marks the official start of the Turkish fig season, says Yigit Gokyigit, commercial coordinator for Alanar: “As usual, crop and export commencement dates are announced by governmental organization for the start of Bursa Black Fig. This year, the season in Bursa starts today, the 25th of August, and the first exports will be tomorrow on the 26th. The fig season started later than usual this year due to weather, as it has been extremely hot.”
Thankfully, the temperatures have since decreased. Gokyigit states it’s important it stays that way or the season could also be cut short. “Temperature is currently around 30 degrees Celsius during the day time in Bursa, there will be no rain at the beginning as well. Because of the weather, the season started late here and the hopes are that the extremely high temperatures do not return so that the season doesn’t end early.”
The heat has had an impact on the overall volumes, but Gokyigit has faith in their own harvest, which should increase over the next few years. “I think overall volume will be less than last year, also due to the weather condition occurred before the crop. We also expect to have more of the smaller sized figs this season compared to previous years. We’re not just an exporter, but also a grower of black figs. We expect to harvest over 150 tons of figs from our own orchards this year. By 2027, we foresee to harvest between 1500 and 2.000 tons from these orchards.”
Gokyigit has noticed strong demand right off the bat, showing the most important markets for this season early on: “Demand for figs seems to be huge this year. Days before season started, we already had received orders for the first weeks of the season. We have many customers that we've supplied figs to for years, even a decade, especially in western Europe and Pacific Asia. They will be our main markets this year once again. We see increasing demand from Middle East and eastern European countries this year as well.”
“As the season just started today, we expect a great season. The season normally lasts approximately 7-8 weeks. Bursa Black is a very-well known Turkish fig variety. It has unique sweet taste and quality that makes it probably the most popular fig all around the world,” Gokyigit concludes.
