Choosing between Turkish fruit and vegetable suppliers takes more than comparing prices, whether you buy for retail or look for Turkish wholesale food suppliers. In fresh produce the real risk lies not in the price but in continuity. Will there be product in winter? Will the same quality arrive every week? Will a lot be turned back at the border because of residues? Antalya is one of the leading centres of Turkey’s fresh produce exports, and for many buyers sourcing from Turkey the search starts here. This guide explains how to assess a supplier, how a shipment runs from harvest to your border, and what Hatipoğlu Tarım, an Antalya exporter active since 2002, can offer.
Why sourcing from Turkey so often starts in Antalya
Antalya’s advantage is protected cultivation. The greenhouse shields the plant from winter cold, so vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and courgettes are harvested in all twelve months. In the winter months, when Europe’s own production is at its lowest, Antalya keeps loading. The region also grows fruit such as citrus and pomegranates. How protected cultivation changes the calendar is explained in our article on year-round loading.
Seven criteria for assessing suppliers from Turkey
- Own facility: is the product prepared in the supplier’s own packhouse? If grading, cooling and loading are not in one pair of hands, both quality and responsibility are spread thin.
- Cold chain: how many hours pass between harvest and cooling, and is the product temperature measured and recorded at loading? See our cold chain article.
- Certificates: the numbers of certificates such as GLOBALG.A.P. and ISO 22000 should be verifiable by the buyer. See which certificates European buyers require.
- Residue management: is every lot analysed, and is the result compared with the limits of the destination market? See our guide to EU pesticide MRLs.
- Continuity: can the supplier run a weekly programme in the winter months too, and source from more than one growing region?
- Product range: can the supplier load a mixed truck? A supplier with a narrow range forces the buyer to work with several companies.
- Traceability: does the carton label show the plot, the harvest date and the packing date, and can a lot be traced back if there is a complaint?
Hatipoğlu Tarım among Turkish fruit and vegetable suppliers
Hatipoğlu Tarım is a fresh fruit and vegetable exporter based in Antalya:
- Founded: 2002. A third-generation family company.
- Range: 128 product lines; the export brand is FİNİKE.
- Markets: 42 countries.
- Facilities: five sites — Serik and Kepez (Antalya), Mavikent (Kumluca), Yenişehir (Bursa) and Alaşehir (Manisa). Harvest, grading, cold storage and dispatch are handled in house.
- Staff: more than 150.
- Certificates: ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. Numbers and validity dates are on our certificates page.
- Awards: nine rankings in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector from the Western Mediterranean Exporters’ Association (BAİB), including first place in 2017.
What you can source: vegetables, citrus and fruit
The in season now page shows what can be loaded this month, and the season calendar shows the whole year. Our supplier guides by product group:
- Vegetables: peppers · tomatoes
- Citrus: lemons · grapefruit · citrus harvest seasons
- Fruit: pomegranates · cherries · fresh figs · table grapes · apricots · watermelons and melons
For the importer’s side of the process, see importing fresh fruit and vegetables from Turkey: a buyer’s guide.
Peppers are covered in the most detail. Start with our guide on how to import peppers from Turkey, then go to the variety you need:
- Kapia pepper
- Bell pepper: green, red and yellow
- Charleston pepper
- Turkish long green peppers (Sivri)
- Green chili pepper
- Red chili pepper
How to import from Turkey: the process in brief
On the supplier’s side the process has six steps: harvest, cooling, grading, packing, cold storage and dispatch under an unbroken cold chain. Shipments are planned by the truckload; a standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck takes 33 euro pallets, and that is the basis for the minimum load. For shipments to Europe, origin is proven with a EUR.1 movement certificate, and a phytosanitary certificate is issued for the border crossing.
What we need to quote
Six details are enough for a quotation: product and variety, calibre, packaging, weekly volume, delivery week and destination country. With these we prepare a loading plan and a price offer. Buyers comparing Turkish fruit and vegetable suppliers can reach us by phone on +90 242 339 55 25, on WhatsApp on +90 534 260 07 25 or at info@hatipoglutarim.com.
Hatipoğlu Tarım has exported fresh fruit and vegetables from Antalya since 2002. Under the FİNİKE brand it ships 128 product lines to 42 countries, with harvest, grading, cold storage and dispatch handled in house across five facilities in Serik, Kepez, Mavikent, Yenişehir and Alaşehir.
Send us your product list and delivery weeks for your fresh produce programme, and we will prepare a loading plan and a quotation.
