FRUIT AND VEGETABLE EXPORTERS CLAIM 25 PERCENT SHARE FROM FAR EAST...

Exporters of fruit and vegetable products will focus on Far East market with URGE Project...

With URGE (Product development) Project, they will make Far Easterners love Turkish tastes and delicasies...

Fruit and vegetable products sector which exports 1.6 billion dollars annually by processing surplus supply of fresh fruits and vegetables into value-added products, has decided to come together in the UR-GE Project supported by the Ministry of Commerce to strengthen its position in the world's fastest growing market in the Far East.

As fruit and vegetable products export leader in Turkey, Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association will be implementing this processed fruits and vegetables related project.

Companies, producing and exporting, Pickles, Tomato Paste, Sauces, Prepared Foods, Frozen Fruits and Vegetables, Canned Fruits and Vegetables, Dried Vegetables, Infused / Flavoured Dried Fruits, Jams, Fruit Juices, Juices and Carbonated Drinks and Alcoholic Beverages will be included.

Hayrettin Uçak, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association, stated that they started the URGE Project in 2016, where fresh grape and cherry exporters were previously clustered within the union and ended in July 2019 with huge gains. They also decided to implement two URGE projects based on fresh cherry grape and pomegranate.



"We want to get 25 percent share from Far East"

Sharing the information that Turkey's fruit and vegetable products mainly go to Europe, America and Middle East countries, Uçak said, "Through this URGE project related to processed fruits and vegetables products we plan to strengthen our position in India, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Far East markets, particularly Indonesia."

"Far East countries approaching 50 percent share of the world's population, Turkey has realized 1.6 billion dollars of fruit and vegetable products in 2018 but the share of exports to the Far East countries is only 5,5 percent. Our goal is to export at least 25 percent of fruit and vegetable products to the Far East countries. Our URGE project will guide us in this sense" he added.

Pointing out that the Ministry of Trade supports URGE Projects aiming to improve the international competitiveness of Turkish exporters up to 75 percent, Hayrettin Uçak concluded: "We believe that the Turkish economy will come out of the bottleneck thanks to exports. We aim to ensure that all our companies producing world-class fruit and vegetable products can export at least 50 percent of their production. We are realizing our projects to achieve this goal."