- Exports in June were 5,128 tons, compared to 3,591 tons last year.
- Year to date exports are 92,474 tons compared to 95,061 tons last year.
Exports rebounded in June following a shortened month in May and as lockdowns eased.
Light fruit set, mainly large clean fruit for 2020
Prices have been rising steadily as current crop has sold out, the shorter crop and anticipated intervention by the TMO have reset price expectations with the growers to 2015/2016 levels of between $3500 to $4500 per ton for the 2020 crop. A lack of offers for new crop is a clear indication of how nervous packers are about the transition to new crop.
Growers have benefitted from earthquake and Covid disaster payments and banks are offering low interest stimulus loans to farmers and exporters. The Malatya Borsa has completed its warehouse where farmers may deposit their fruit in exchange for a cashable receipt, meaning they can draw money against the receipt without having to fix the price if they feel it is not high enough. In short farmers will not feel pressured to sell early.
Malatya Borsa new “Licensed Apricot” warehouse
2020 Crop Survey
We carried out an abbreviated crop survey last week. The highlights are
- The fruit set is light in all areas except a minority of areas where there is no fruit.
- Sizes will be medium through large with little size 5 or smaller.
- The fruit is mainly clean with few blemishes.
- Organic will be even less than last year due in part to the diseased/dead orchards.
- A much larger portion of the crop will be natural, perhaps 30% which will further reduce the overall supply of sulphured apricots.
We believe the crop will be between 75,000 and 85,000 tons with 5,000 tons of carryover. This leaves us with around 40% less supply compared to the last 3 crop years.
The Lira has been steady for the past month trading in a tight range between 6.82 and 6.86