A fresh approach to dried fruit and natural dried foods

News

Rain in Turkey excites the Market  The warm autumn weather in the UK has helped to extend the summer and delayed the start in the pre Christmas increase in demand for dried fruit.  This is just as well as the world dried fruit markets have been thrown into turmoil by the sudden unforeseen increase in the price of Turkish Sultanas and Raisins. This increase has gathered speed in the last week with prices on the local Izmir Bourse rising daily.  Persistent rumors of a smaller than average crop have perhaps been the catalyzed for the rise, by the clever decision by Taris to pinch the field price given to the farmers higher than had been thought has also been an important factor.  There were also rain showers earlier in the week which may have caused some damage to fruit in the open drying and further rain is predicted for the coming weekend. Prices have therefore increased to between $1800 to $1900 PMT FOB for new season specially cleaned standard No. 9 sultanas. Some packers have made the unfortunate mistake of selling early, so that they will now have difficulty in covering their requirements of raw material.  This will further inflate the market in the short term. The recent rain in Turkey also had an effect on the price and availability of Turkish figs.  This market had been reducing in price on the expectation of a much larger tonnage and the inclement weather maybe a convenient reason to reverse this trend.  First exports of Turkish figs are due on September 28th, so most packers are now busy preparing their Pre-Christmas orders. News from California suggest that the US raisin industry are closely watching developments in Turkey to see whether this can be a reason to dramatically increase the price of American Thompson seedless raisins. This market has been relatively stable for the last few months with prices of select raisins between$ 0.70 – £0.72 cents per LB C & F Felixstowe.  Prices have now jumped to $0.78 – $0.80 cents per LB and may well increase further.  Much will depend on whether a new government backed export program is put in place to help reduce the export price of raisins.  Each year this has been a contentious issue and it maybe a good idea if a more longer term program could be developed.

George Harker & Co Ltd Park Drive Industrial Estate Braintree Essex CM7 1AW Tel 01376 321 272 Fax 01376 552 160

               

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