An avocado supplier hands over a fruit that is not yet finished, and the buyer needs to know exactly at what stage it arrives. Hatipoğlu Tarım, exporting fresh fruit and vegetables from Antalya since 2002, sources avocados from orchards between Kumluca and Gazipaşa from October to March, harvests them hard and ships them unripe. Below, importers, wholesalers and retail buyers will find the origin, the season, the selection criteria, the research on ripening and temperature, the cartons and the way to a quotation.
Growing areas on the Antalya coast
As an avocado exporter in Turkey, the company describes the avocado as a product supplied from the rapidly developing growing areas along the Antalya coast. The orchards lie between Kumluca and Gazipaşa. For buyers, Turkish avocado is a winter-half line: the supply period runs from October to March, and the product calendar marks the same six months. How that fits with other products can be seen in the season calendar.
Selection criteria and the role of dry matter
If you plan to import avocados from Turkey, begin with the four points on which Hatipoğlu Tarım selects the fruit:
- Size: give the size you need in your enquiry.
- Dry matter content: the maturity measure, discussed below.
- Skin integrity: an undamaged skin.
- Firmness: the fruit is harvested hard.
Dry matter is also the maturity index used in research. UC Davis reports minimum values of 19–25% depending on the cultivar, and cites 19.0% for Fuerte and 20.8% for Hass as examples. We mention these two names only because the source does. The company’s product text names no cultivar, so the type is a point to clarify in your enquiry.
Harvested hard, ripened after picking
Avocados do not ripen on the tree. The product text says so, and the UC Davis data agree: ethylene production begins only after harvest. The company cools the fruit and ships it unripe, and adds one sentence that matters for planning: the ripening process can be managed according to the buyer’s sales programme. How that is arranged for your programme is a matter to raise with us directly.
For avocado wholesale, the published ripening data are a useful reference. UC Davis describes treatment with 100 ppm ethylene at 20 °C for 48 hours with early-season fruit, 24 hours in mid-season and 12 hours late in the season, after which the fruit ripens in three to six days. The source also notes that ripe, soft avocados need care in handling.
Temperature: one range for unripe fruit, another for ripe
The figures in this section are research data published by UC Davis, not the company’s operating settings. Mature-green, that is unripe, avocados are held at 5–13 °C, depending on cultivar and duration. Ripe avocados are held at 2–4 °C. Relative humidity is 90–95% in both cases. Controlled atmosphere of 2–5% O2 with 3–10% CO2 delays softening and reduces chilling injury, and mature-green Hass can be kept for nine weeks at 5–7 °C under such conditions.
The practical consequence concerns mixed loads. Unripe avocados are chilling-sensitive and are not placed in a load running at 0 °C. Ripe avocados produce ethylene, which is why they are not recommended in the same vehicle as kiwifruit. Other chilling-sensitive fruit, such as bananas, has a temperature range of its own.
Two carton footprints and HS 0804.40
The product table lists two cartons for avocados: 30 × 40 × 12.5 cm and 30 × 50 × 12.5 cm. General background on footprints and pallets is in our guide to packaging and case sizes in export. In the customs tariff, avocados are classified at six digits under HS 0804.40. The full tariff line is a matter for your customs broker to confirm before shipment.
Paperwork and residues
The certificates in place are ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. Before a lot leaves for Europe it undergoes residue analysis. If your quality department works from a checklist, our overview of which certificates European buyers require may save a round of e-mails.
How an order runs
Hatipoğlu Tarım keeps the steps in house: harvest of hard fruit, selection by size, dry matter, skin and firmness, packing, cooling of the unripe fruit, storage until loading and dispatch in a temperature-controlled truck. Road transport is planned truck by truck; the standard 13.60 m vehicle takes 33 euro pallets measuring 80 × 120 cm.
Six facts we need from you
A quotation rests on six facts: the type, the size, the carton, the weekly volume, the delivery week and the destination country. Telephone +90 242 339 55 25, WhatsApp +90 534 260 07 25, e-mail 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.
Share your sales programme for October to March on our contact page, with size and weekly volume, so that we can put together the season plan and the price quotation for avocados.
