A garden cress supplier works with a crop that moves fast: cress is ready for harvest a short time after sowing, and it has to be handled just as quickly once it is cut. Hatipoğlu Tarım, an Antalya-based exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables since 2002, offers cress throughout the year.
Garden cress from Turkey: the product
Cress is a leafy product sold in fresh bunches and chosen for its distinctive aroma. Garden cress from Turkey is selected by the company on three points: the freshness of the stems, the integrity of the leaves and the quality of the bunch. It is prepared according to the requirements of the export order. Related guides deal with rocket and fresh dill.
A fast crop with a twelve-month calendar
Cress is one of the fast-developing crops and reaches harvest shortly after it is sown. The product calendar lists it from January to December. A programme can therefore be set up for any part of the year; the season calendar places it among the other products.
Bunched in the field, washed and cooled the same day
The handling sequence is short. Cress is tied into bunches in the field. On the same day it is washed and then cooled with water. According to the company, this sequence helps the product keep its fresh look until it is shipped.
Quality on arrival
Apart from the three selection points above, a buyer can use the general description that UC Davis publishes for fresh culinary herbs. There is no separate sheet for cress, so the description serves as a guide for tender leafy greens rather than as a cress standard:
- Look: a fresh appearance with even size, form and colour.
- Leaves: none yellowed, none damaged.
- Soundness: free of decay and wilting.
- Aroma: characteristic, and known to fade in storage.
What the research says about storage
In the same general data, most herbs are stored at 0 °C and above 95% relative humidity, with an expected shelf life of three weeks at 0 °C and two weeks at 5 °C. None of these figures was measured on cress in particular. The source lists hydrocooling before packing and room cooling after packing among the usual methods, and it warns that water loss is a serious cause of quality loss in products marketed in small quantities.
Turkish fresh greens on one truck
Lettuces, fresh herbs and spring onions travel at around 0 °C and can be loaded together, so Turkish fresh greens of several kinds can share a vehicle. Greenhouse vegetables carried at around 10 °C, such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers, cannot be moved at that temperature. The article on the cold chain in fresh produce export explains the grouping.
Two crate sizes for fresh cress wholesale
Cress is packed in plastic crates in two sizes: 30 × 40 × 14 cm and 30 × 50 × 22 cm. For fresh cress wholesale, name the size that suits your handling, and state the bunch weight or the number of bunches you want; that figure is set by the buyer. Euro pallets of 80 × 120 cm carry the crates. How pallets are placed in the vehicle is covered in our article on loading patterns.
Documents to import cress from Turkey
Buyers who import cress from Turkey receive product from a company certified to ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. All lots sent to Europe pass a residue analysis. No HS code is given in this guide: for leafy herbs the classification can depend on the intended use and on the country, so the tariff position should be confirmed with your customs broker before shipment. See also which certificates European buyers require.
The six steps of an order
Harvest and bunching in the field come first, then washing and water cooling on the same day, grading, packing, cold storage and dispatch. Trucks are the planning unit: a standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck is filled by 33 euro pallets.
Quotation details
Please give us the product, the bunch weight or count, the crate size, the weekly volume, the delivery week and the destination country. We answer on +90 242 339 55 25, on WhatsApp at +90 534 260 07 25 and 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 your bunch specification and weekly volume for cress, and we will prepare a season plan and a price quotation.
