Dried sour cherries: Turkey doubles exports
The cultivation of stone fruit is an important economic sector for Turkey. The country is not only one of the most important producers worldwide, but also one of the largest exporters. Offers for dried sour cherries from this year's crop are expected in about a month.
Rising demand
While Turkey grows both sour and sweet cherries, the latter represent a much larger share of the market. Over the past decades, more and more cherry plantations have been established, enabling the country to become one of the leading suppliers. According to Turkish authorities, about 34.5 million cherry trees are commercially cultivated in Turkey. While the number of sweet cherry trees increased from 14.7 million to 21.1 million in the past ten years, the number of sour cherry trees remained largely stable.
The season for fresh cherries from Turkey usually starts in April. As the cherry plantations are spread all over the country and are exposed to different climatic conditions, the start of the harvest can vary by up to 45-55 days in the individual regions. Sour cherries are primarily processed into juices and jams in Turkey, but they are also dried. With increasing demand from overseas, Turkish producers have recently been producing more dried sour cherries, and the supply is growing. Since the beginning of this season, 114,489 mt of dried sour cherries worth USD 1.55 million have already been exported from Turkey, which means that exports have already more than doubled year-on-year. (Mundus-Agri)
New prices in July
The harvest for the production of dried sour cherries usually takes place between July and August. The fruits are sundried and are available either pitted or unpitted. To obtain 1 kg of dried sour cherries, about 8 kg of fresh cherries are needed. (Mundus-Agri)
