A Golden Delicious apple supplier is tested late in the season rather than at harvest: the question is whether fruit loaded in April or May is still firm, clear-skinned and free of shrivel. Hatipoğlu Tarım is a fresh produce exporter based in Antalya, in business since 2002, and it supplies Golden Delicious from September to June. This guide is written for importers, wholesalers and retail buyers who plan to import apples from Turkey.
A yellow apple chosen for storage and long transit
The Golden Delicious has a clear yellow skin, crisp flesh and a balanced aroma, and it is a variety suited to storage and to long shipments. Our fruit comes from orchards in Elmalı and Korkuteli. When you compare apple suppliers in Turkey, the length of the supply window is the practical point: this variety is picked in autumn and then supplied from store, so one source covers ten months of the calendar.
Season: autumn harvest, supply until June
Harvest runs from September to December, and the fruit is cooled on the day it is picked. Controlled atmosphere storage allows supply to continue until June. Where the apple window sits beside other lines is shown in the Türkiye fresh produce season calendar.
Buyers who build a range of Turkish apples with a green and a red variety beside the yellow one can read our guides to Granny Smith and Starking.
Quality criteria for export Golden Delicious
We select the fruit on four criteria: size, colour, firmness and skin integrity. Size and colour grading follows the buyer’s own standard.
- Size: uniform within the carton; the size range is fixed in the order.
- Colour: clear yellow skin. According to data published by UC Davis, the maturity index for this variety is the change of ground colour from dark green to light green or yellowish green.
- Firmness: crisp flesh with no soft fruit in the lot.
- Skin integrity: no cuts or bruises. The same source describes bitter pit, a disorder linked to low calcium, as sunken brown spots on the skin.
Water loss and bruising: two risks to discuss with your supplier
The postharvest data published by UC Davis single out two weaknesses of this variety. First, Golden Delicious is particularly susceptible to water loss: weight loss can reach 3–6%, and rapid cooling together with a plastic liner inside the box reduces it. Second, bruising shows more readily on this variety, so gentle handling matters at every transfer. The same data rate its susceptibility to superficial scald as low.
Published storage data: temperature, humidity, controlled atmosphere
UC Davis gives an optimum of 0 °C ± 1 °C at 90–95% relative humidity, with a freezing point of −1.7 °C. For fruit stored longer than one month, controlled atmosphere maintains firmness, acidity and skin colour. The storage potential cited is up to 10 months in controlled atmosphere against 6 months in air, and the recommended atmosphere is 1–3% oxygen with 1.5–3% carbon dioxide.
The main storage diseases named are blue mould (Penicillium expansum) and grey mould (Botrytis cinerea), both of which enter through wounds, and mouldy core. How temperature is held from the store to the destination is covered in our article on the cold chain in fresh produce export.
Cartons, pallets and what can share the truck
Golden Delicious is packed in 30 × 50 × 22 cm cartons. Cartons are stacked on 80 × 120 cm euro pallets; footprints are explained in packaging and case sizes in export. We plan by the truck, and a standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck takes 33 euro pallets.
Apples, pears and quinces travel at similar temperatures, close to 0 °C, and can be loaded together. These fruits produce ethylene, so sharing a vehicle with ethylene-sensitive produce such as leafy vegetables or cucumbers is not recommended. Greenhouse vegetables carried at around 10 °C (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers) cannot travel at the apple temperature.
For customs, apples are classified under HS 0808.10. Please confirm the full tariff line with your customs broker before shipment.
Certificates and residue analysis
Our certification covers ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. Every lot bound for Europe goes through residue analysis; the background is in our article on EU pesticide MRLs. Which papers a retail buyer normally asks for is set out in which certificates European buyers require.
Import process: from the orchard to your warehouse
The work runs in six steps: harvest between September and December, cooling on the same day, grading by size and colour to the buyer’s standard, packing in cartons, cold storage under controlled atmosphere, and dispatch by refrigerated truck. All six are handled in house.
Golden Delicious apple wholesale: how to request a quote
A Golden Delicious apple wholesale enquiry can be answered with a quotation once we have six details: variety, size, packaging, weekly volume, delivery week and destination country. Call us on +90 242 339 55 25, write on WhatsApp to +90 534 260 07 25 or email 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 size range, weekly volume and delivery weeks for Golden Delicious, and we will reply with a quotation.
