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.
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Dried Fruit & Nuts
Consumption and Product Trends in Turkey
General Overview - Turkey
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Name: Republic of Turkey
Population: 63,451,000 (1998)
Annual Growth rate: 1.4%
Area: 814,578 Km2
Land Area: 76.9m ha.
Cultivated area: 28m ha.
Population Density:78
persons/Km2
Unemployment: 6.3%
Employed in agriculture: 43%
Employed in services: 40.3%
Employed in industry: 16.7%
Capital: Ankara
Currency: Turkish Lira (TL)
$1=1,450,000 TL (as of 5/2004)
GNP: US$ 204.5 billion
(16th among OECD)
GDP: US$ 3,250 per capita
Trade (1998 figures)
Exports: US$ 26.9 billion
Imports: US$ 45.9 billion
Exports
Agricultural US$ 2.7 billion
Minerals US$ 363 million
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General Overview – Turkey-2
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Manufacturing: US$ 23.8 billion
Crops: Wheat, barley, cotton, sugar beets, sunflower, potato, tobacco,
vegetables, dried fruits, fresh fruits, nuts, ornamentals.
Natural Resources: Hydro-Electric power, chromium, copper, tungsten,
phosphate, boron, barite, bentonite, manganese, zinc, magnesite, perlite,
wolfram, asbestos, bauxite, lead, mercury, sulphur, emery, meerschaum,
marble, aluminium, iron, coal, crude oil, forests, livestock.
Agricultural Exports: Hazelnuts, pistachio, figs, dried raisins and apricot,
pulses, tobacco, citrus, pome and stone fruits, melons, vegetables, tomato
products, cut flowers, processed food, poultry meat, cereals, cotton, tea.
Other Exports: Manufactured goods, minerals, textile, thread, ready-towear clothing, leather, machinery, mechanical appliances, furniture,
carpets, rugs, automobiles, buses, pharmaceuticals, man-made filaments,
glass and glass-ware products, articles of iron and steel and aluminium.
Major Trading Partners: OECD, EU, Middle-East and CIS countries,
Russian Federation.
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Insufficiency in Statistical Data
There is no comprehensive statistic regarding
domestic consumption of Dried Fruits and Nuts
in Turkey
 Wholesalers of DFN make sells without invoice
 This situation is also valid for retailers
 Around 80% of the sales are done without
records
 In these presentation, figures are generally
based on estimations and household surveys
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Most Popular Dried Fruit & Nuts
Consumed in Turkey
Hazelnuts
 Raisins
 Dried Apricots
 Dried Figs
 Peanut
 Walnut
 Pumpkin & Sunflower
Seeds
 Pistachio
 Almonds
 Roasted Chickpeas

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Consumption Traditions of Turks

Dried Fruits like
apricots, figs, raisins,
prunes and date are
mostly consumed in
holly months like in
Ramadan & Ashure
periods.
Nuts consumption is
generally balanced all
over the year.
 During Christmas time
it goes peak levels
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Imported Dried Fruits and Nuts
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Walnuts: Ukraine, Moldovia, Uzbekistan, Romania.
Almonds: USA
Date: Iran, S.Arabia, Tunusia
Pumpkin&Sunflower Seeds: Ukraine, China, East
Europe
In walnuts, almonds and sf&p seeds Turkey’s
production is not sufficient that’s why they are
imported sometimes.
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Domestic Market Prices (€ /kg)
WholeSale
•
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Hazelnuts (roasted)
Raisins
Dried Apricots
Dried Figs
Peanut
Walnut
Pumpkin Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Pistachio
Almonds
Roasted Chickpeas
4.1
1.1
3
2.5
.8
4
1.5
.6
4.5
5
1
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Retail
6.5
1.5
4.5
4
1.2
6
2
1
6.5
7
1.5
8
Hazelnuts (1)
One of the popular item which is used for snacking,
bakery, chocolate and oil industry.
 Because of excess supply, different organizations
are promoting domestic consumption of hazelnuts
 Generally consumed in roasted form. Sliced and
diced types are being popular recent years.
 In recent years some processors roasting hazelnuts
in shells with salt.

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Years
Producti
on
(shelled)
1992
260
178
82
1993
153
198
(46)
1994
245
200
45
1995
228
244
(17)
1996
223
193
30
1997
205
190
15
1998
290
193
97
1999
265
175
90
2000
235
171
64
2001
285
244
41
2002
313
247
66
Export
Remaining
(‘000 tons)
Source: Aegean Exporter’s Union
Hazelnuts (2)
•Last 10 year’s avarage
is 47,000 mt for
domestic consumption.
•A big part of it goes to
oil industry.
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Raisins & Apricots
Sultana Seedless Raisins and Apricots are
consumed as cospote, snack, in bakery, molasses,
chocolate and biscuit industry
 Raisins with seeds are consumed for snacking.
 Bad Quality Raisins go to Alcohol Factories and
Molasses Factories
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. Raisins (2)
Years
Production
Export
Remai
ning
('000
tons)
1995
179
169
10
1996
185
173
12
1997
210
181
29
1998
250
193
57
1999
250
189
61
2000
255
202
53
2001
250
226
24
2002
255
205
50
•Last 8 year’s avarage is 37,000
mt for domestic consumption.
•A serious part of it goes to
alcohol industry.
•When we consider unrecorded
production domestic
consumption must be bigger.
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Exported
Years
Production
(tons)
1993
23,023
33,063
(10,040)
1994
66,955
46,175
20,780
1995
30,140
52,778
(22,638)
1996
18,361
43,370
(25,009)
1997
37,256
45,544
(8,288)
1998
76,637
50,655
25,982
1999
40,000
50,431
(10,431)
2000
77,579
68,128
9,451
2001
58,500
85,626
(27,126)
Sources:
Balance
. Dried Apricots (2)
•The statistics show very
irrelevant numbers
•That means unrecorded apricot
production is at very high levels
•According to our surveys
avarage household consumption
is 3kg/year. That makes 3040,000 mt annual domestic
consumption.
Ministry of Agriculture, Undersec. Of Foreign Trade
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Ground Nut Export and Imports of Turkey (tons)
Exported
Importe
d
Ground Nut
Balance for Dom.
Consumption
Years
Production
1996
80,000
458
3,241
82,783
1997
82,000
222
5,359
87,137
1998
90,000
96
9,481
99,385
1999
75,000
348
3,708
78,360
2000
78,000
61
7,581
85,520
2001
72,000
161
821
72,660
Source: FAO ( www.fao.org)
• Ground
Nut consumption is generally done as snack format in
Turkey.
•In recent years, some ‘’spice&starch’’ coated grıundnuts became
very popular
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Dried Figs
Years
Producti
on
Export
ed
Balanc
e
1993
44.613
36.522
8.091
1994
48.605
46.634
1.971
1995
49.975
42.738
7.237
1996
50.155
35.972
14.183
1997
45.255
33.997
11.258
1998
50.981
37.253
13.728
1999
47.8
40.222
7.578
2000
48.675
36.759
11.916
2001
48.028
39.284
8.744
Sources: Foreign Trade
Statistics, EBİM, & Taris
Dried Fig Consumption
is around 9000 mt/year
 Around 5000 mt/year is
consumed as regular
dried figs
 Rest of it goes for
industrial purposes
 It is very common to
eat figs with walnuts

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Pistachios
Turkey is one of the biggest pistachio
producing country. It is grown in Antep and
Siirt regions
 Yearly production is around 80,000mt, almost
all of them consumed domestically.
 Shelled pistachios are used in bakery and
dessert sector. Most popular Turkish desserts
are done by pistachio kernels. (walnut is
substitute for pistachio in desserts)
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Roasted Chickpeas
Yellow and White types are available
 Coating of this product became popular
 Because of its cheap price, preffered in rural parts of
Turkey.
 Turkish name is ‘’Leblebi’’
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Almonds
There is a tradition in Turkey, people eat
almonds, when it is fresh, just after bloom.
 That’s why Turkey imports almonds from
California.
 Normally Turkey must be self-sufficient even
exporter country in almonds.
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Conclusions (1)
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When we look at overall view of Turkey’s dried fruit
and nuts consumption and product trends in Turkey,
we see that:
Self-sufficient country. There is no big demand for
imported products.
Historically exporter of classic dried fruits
Average per capita consumption numbers are very
low and distribution of consumption is unbalanced
Becuase of lack of recorded production and sales,
the real consumption numbers may differ from 30%
to 70%
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Conclusions (2)
D.Fruits and Nuts consumption as ingredients
recently increasing such as in bakery sector.
 Farmers prefer to produce classic products
instead of improving new products
 Consumers are not very interested in new
products
 Consumers prefer to buy from sellers with
bulk cartons instead of retail packs because
of price advantage

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Conclusions (3)
Turkey with its 70 million people, and very
young population must shift consumption
behaviors from fast foods to healthy dried
fruits and nuts.
 This can be done with serious promotions
and campaigns.
 This promotions are done only when there is
excess supply of that product.

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Ozbalci
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‘’Quality Dried Fruits and