You can tell a careful pumpkin supplier by the stem: it is still on the fruit, and nobody has used it as a handle. Hatipoğlu Tarım, an exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables working from Antalya since 2002, has pumpkin on its calendar in all twelve months. Importers, wholesalers and retail buyers will find in this guide the company’s own handling rules, the research figures that explain why pumpkin cannot share a cold load, the carton, the customs heading and the details an offer depends on.
Pumpkins from Turkey: hard skin, year-round line
Pumpkin owes its place in the export range to a hard skin, a full body and its suitability for storage. Those three properties are the company’s explanation for why it can be supplied throughout the year. Other all-year vegetables in the same range include white cabbage and sweet corn, although, as shown below, pumpkin does not travel with them.
Availability
January to December are all marked on the product calendar. What else is on offer in a given month can be checked in the Türkiye fresh produce season calendar.
The stem rule
At harvest the pumpkin is cut together with its stem, and during handling it is not held by the stem. The company gives the reason: keeping the stem intact helps to prevent damage to the surface of the fruit.
UC Davis, in the sheet it publishes for pumpkin and winter squash, lists an intact stem among the marks of quality, next to full size, a regular shape and a well-developed skin typical of the variety. The stem also tells you about maturity. According to the same sheet, a mature fruit shows corking of the stem and a subtle change in skin colour, whereas the stem of an immature fruit is fleshy; immature fruit decays more and loses more weight in storage.
Selection criteria
Pumpkins are chosen for export on the following points:
- Skin integrity: a closed, undamaged skin.
- Maturity: fruit that has reached the right stage; the corked stem described above is the visible sign named in the research.
- General quality: the fruit considered as a whole.
Curing and dry storage
The company states that pumpkins are cured so that the skin hardens and are then stored in dry conditions.
Research data: a warm-stored vegetable
The published UC Davis range for pumpkin and winter squash is 12.5–15 °C. The fruit is very sensitive to chilling below 10 °C, and storage life is 2–6 months depending on the variety. Above 15 °C the sheet reports excessive weight loss, loss of colour and poor eating quality. These are research values, quoted with their source; they do not describe the company’s stores.
The consequence for a buyer is about loading. Cabbage, broccoli, carrots and sweet corn are carried at around 0 °C, and pumpkin does not go into a 0 °C load. If you import pumpkin from Turkey together with these lines, pumpkin has to be planned as a separate temperature. The general rules are in cold chain in fresh produce export.
Cartons for pumpkin wholesale, and the customs code
Pumpkins are packed in cartons of 60 × 40 × 15 cm, which are palletised on the 80 × 120 cm euro pallet. When you place a pumpkin wholesale enquiry, give the quantity in cartons or pallets so that the truck can be calculated.
Pumpkins belong to HS 0709.93 at six digits, the heading for pumpkins, squash and gourds. Have the full tariff line checked by your customs broker before the pumpkins are shipped.
Certificates and residue analysis
For pumpkin, as for the rest of the range, the certificates are ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. Pumpkin lots sent to Europe pass through residue analysis like every other lot. For the legal side of residues, see EU pesticide MRLs.
From harvest to dispatch as a winter squash supplier
For pumpkin the six steps are harvest with the stem, curing so that the skin hardens, grading, packing, dry storage and dispatch, all handled in house. As a winter squash supplier the company plans transport in full trucks, and the standard 13.60 m temperature-controlled truck carries 33 euro pallets.
Information needed for an offer
Please send six details: the type, the size, the packaging, the weekly quantity, the delivery week and the destination country. We are available by phone at +90 242 339 55 25 and on WhatsApp at +90 534 260 07 25; written enquiries go to 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.
Use the contact page to send the pumpkin type, size and weekly quantity you need, and let us prepare the season plan and the price quotation.
