A green plum supplier sells a fruit that many produce buyers have never handled: a plum that is picked and eaten before it ripens. Hatipoğlu Tarım, a fresh produce exporter based in Antalya since 2002, prepares can eriği (Turkish green plum) for export every spring. This guide is for importers and wholesalers who have been asked for the product by their own customers and want to know what they are buying. It explains what the fruit is, who sells it, when it is available, how quality is judged, how it is packed and which details we need to prepare a quotation.
What can eriği, the Turkish green plum, is
Can eriği is a plum eaten before it ripens, while it is still green and crisp. Its colour is a lively green and its taste is fresh and sour. It is not an under-ripe version of a purple or black plum that will colour on the shelf. Green is the finished state of the product, and the fruit is sold, displayed and eaten that way.
This matters when you brief your quality team. A receiving inspector used to summer plums may read green colour and hard flesh as immaturity and reject the lot. For the green plum, those are exactly the features the customer pays for. Many buyers first hear of the product when a customer describes a hard, green plum that is eaten unripe and asks whether it can be sourced.
Who buys green plums
The demand comes from a clearly defined group: shoppers who know Turkish, Middle Eastern and Iranian cooking. For them it is a familiar spring fruit with a short season. The product is therefore sought mainly by retailers and greengrocers who serve these customers, and by the green plum wholesale traders who supply them. Expect their enquiries in a few spring weeks, because the season is short.
Green plum season: February to April
Can eriği is harvested from February to April. It is a spring fruit with a short season, so volumes should be discussed before it opens rather than during it. Where it sits among other products is shown in our season calendar for Turkish fresh produce. Buyers of spring specialities often also ask for green almonds, which share the same months, and for Papaz plums from March.
Quality criteria: crispness comes first
The fruit is harvested young and hard, and the central quality criterion is a crisp texture. A green plum that has gone soft has lost what the customer pays for. Fruit is selected against four criteria:
- Size: uniform within the carton; the size range is agreed in the order.
- Colour: bright, lively green without yellowing.
- Firmness: hard and crisp when bitten. This is the point on which a lot is accepted or refused.
- Skin: whole, without cracks, cuts or pressure marks.
Harvest, cooling and transport
Softening is the enemy of this product, so cooling starts in the orchard and continues without interruption through packing, storage and transport. We do not publish a general storage temperature or shelf-life figure for can eriği here. The set point, the transport conditions and the transit time are agreed with you for each order. The principles are set out in our guide to the cold chain in fresh produce export.
Packaging and HS code
Can eriği is packed in cartons of two sizes: 30 × 50 × 12.5 cm and 60 × 40 × 15 cm. The choice depends on your sales channel and is fixed in the order. Cartons are palletised on 80 × 120 cm euro pallets, and shipments are planned by the truck: a standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck takes 33 euro pallets. Footprints and pallet patterns are described in packaging and case sizes in export.
Fresh plums fall under HS code 0809.40. Please confirm the full tariff line with your customs broker before shipment.
Documents and residue analysis
Hatipoğlu Tarım holds ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP certification. Every lot is analysed for pesticide residues and the results are compared with European Union limits. How those limits work is explained in our article on EU pesticide MRLs; the documents buyers usually request are listed in which certificates European buyers require.
Import process when you import green plums from Turkey
The process has six steps: harvest of young, hard fruit, cooling that begins in the orchard, grading by size, colour, firmness and skin, packing into cartons, cold storage and dispatch by refrigerated truck. All six are handled in house, which keeps the time between tree and truck short.
How to get a quote
To quote we need six details: variety, size, packaging, weekly volume, delivery week and destination country. You can reach us by phone on +90 242 339 55 25, by WhatsApp on +90 534 260 07 25 or by email 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.
Tell us your weekly volume and delivery week for green plums before the season opens, and we will prepare a quotation.
