Turkish Apricot Market Update

Please see the below market information from one of our Turkish Apricot suppliers:

During Mid March we had a few serious frost in Malatya . Since the first incident more frost damage news/rumours have been heard from different regions. So it looks that we will be spending April with frost arguments as well. To understand real effects and size of the damage we must see the situation in May with a nice hot weather . Before we see the young fruit on the trees we can never be sure that which areas and which orchards are effected and which ones are good. Some says 20% some say 50% of the crop have been damaged. In fact these rates never make any sense. We are not sure about the size of a healthy unaffected crop so it is not easy to calculate at this stage. 

It looks  that majority of the growers also believe that enough fruit is there. Last week we saw plenty of raw material in the bazaar market and prices has declined. Although Turkish Lira is stronger sale prices compared to two weeks ago have decreased. Yesterday and today the market is more or less balanced. Delivered goods are sold in the bazaar market and growers are not in rush to sell their goods any more. 

Until end of the April we still have additional frost risk.  Today I can say it is very likely that we will have around 100.000 tons of Dried Apricots but it is indeed very early to make any well directed estimation.

From now on until new Crop we expect a a stable market with small fluctuations. Ramadan demand is approaching and we have more than enough big sizes to cover these demands. It is still very difficult to find small sizes and the quality is very bad.