- Exports in August were 6,411 tons, compared to 7,546 tons last year
- Average price for diced apricots was $2262 , average price for whole apricots was $2720
The first shipment of new crop was slightly below expectations but this was probably due to the week long national holidays in the middle of August and some packers did not start processing new crop until after the holidays.
Prices for sulphured apricots have firmed $100 to $200 since the opening, and have now stabilized as harvest yields were lighter than anticipated.
The Lira is also more stable over the past weeks, and the inflation rate seems to be coming down. The banking situation is also easing, and serious packers have no problems obtaining export credits.
The shortage of natural and organic apricots has rather shocked the markets, and prices for both have risen sharply. The shortage of natural apricots was caused by low prices of the past 2 years when there was a lot of blemishes in the crops that growers sought to disguise by making natural apricots. Prices for natural apricots subsequently fell below the sulphured prices. As there were very few blemished on this crop, growers had no incentive to make naturals. In the case of organics, the main organic growing areas of Dogansehir and Akcadag were affected by frosts.
We estimate that the quantity of Natural apricots is less than half of last year, and organics are some 40% down. The competition amongst packers to collect any remaining lots of naturals and organics is complete, and there is nothing left with the growers.