When you compare carrot suppliers, look at what happens to the root after lifting: how it is cleaned, how it is sorted and what it is packed in. Hatipoğlu Tarım is an Antalya-based exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables, exporting since 2002, and carrot is a twelve-month line in its range. This guide is aimed at importers, wholesalers and retail buyers. Its subjects are cleaning, sorting, the published storage data, the bitterness risk that comes with ethylene, packaging, the customs code and the quotation.
Carrots from Turkey: colour, form, texture
Carrot is selected for a vivid colour, a regular form and a fresh texture. It is available through the whole year. Buyers who import carrots from Turkey can use the line as a base for a mixed vegetable programme; the seasonal roots that join it in winter are white radish and Vezir radish.
Washed, not brushed
During cleaning the carrots are washed instead of being brushed. According to the company, this method helps to protect the thin outer layer of the root and supports the crisp look of the product during storage.
One remark from the research side belongs here. UC Davis notes that free water left from washing, and condensation, increase decay. The remark applies to every stage after packing, your own warehouse included.
Sorting criteria
The roots are separated on three measures, and the ranges are set by the buyer’s request:
- Diameter: state the range you need.
- Length: sorted to the buyer’s request.
- General quality: colour, form and freshness together.
The description UC Davis publishes for a good carrot is a useful receiving checklist: firm and not limp, straight, tapering evenly from shoulder to tip, bright orange, with little hairiness from lateral roots and no green shoulder.
How long carrots keep: published data
The optimum published by UC Davis is 0 °C with a relative humidity of 98–100%. At that temperature the typical storage life is 10–14 days for bunched carrots with their tops, 4–6 weeks for immature roots and 7–9 months for mature roots. At 3–5 °C, mature carrots can be stored for 3–5 months with little decay. These numbers are research data and are not the company’s storage schedule.
Ethylene makes carrots bitter
Mixed loads need attention here. Ethylene causes a bitter taste in carrots through the formation of isocoumarin. In the UC Davis data, 0.5 ppm of ethylene produces perceptible bitterness within 2 weeks under normal storage conditions. Carrots should therefore not be mixed with ethylene-producing products such as apples, pears, melons and tomatoes. They can be loaded with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, radish and sweet corn, which share the 0 °C, high-humidity regime. More on temperature management: cold chain in fresh produce export.
Packaging for carrots wholesale
Carrots are packed in ventilated bags or loose, and the outer pack is a carton of 60 × 40 × 15 cm. Cartons are stacked on 80 × 120 cm euro pallets. For carrots wholesale the choice between bags and loose filling depends on how you sell on, so include it in your enquiry. More on case formats is in packaging and case sizes in export.
Carrots have the HS code 0706.10 at six digits; your customs broker should confirm the full tariff line before shipment.
Certification and residue analysis
Five certificates are held: ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP. Carrot lots for Europe, like all others, are analysed for residues before they go. See EU pesticide MRLs for how the limits work.
Dealing with a carrot exporter in Turkey: the six steps
With Hatipoğlu Tarım as your carrot exporter in Turkey, harvest, cooling, grading by diameter and length, packing, cold storage and dispatch are in one company’s hands; washing belongs to the cleaning stage. Each standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck is loaded with 33 euro pallets, and orders are planned in those units.
The quotation
For a quotation, write down the type, the diameter and length range, bags or loose in cartons, the weekly quantity, the delivery week and the destination country. Send it to info@hatipoglutarim.com, or use the phone (+90 242 339 55 25) or WhatsApp (+90 534 260 07 25).
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 diameter range, packing choice and weekly quantity through the contact page, and let us prepare the season plan and the price quotation.
