A mini cucumber supplier is judged on one thing before anything else: whether every piece in the pack is the same length, week after week. Hatipoğlu Tarım is an Antalya-based exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables, established in 2002, and it prepares mini cucumbers for export in all twelve months. This guide is written for retail chain buyers, importers and wholesalers. It sets out the size standard, how that standard is held, the supply calendar, transport conditions, packaging, documents and the six details we need to prepare a quotation.
What the Turkish mini cucumber is and who buys it
The mini cucumber is a short cucumber of 8–12 cm with a crisp texture and a regular shape. It is chosen above all for the retail market. That is what separates it from the standard type described in our guide for buyers who need a cucumber supplier from Turkey: with the Turkish mini cucumber the buyer is paying for uniformity, and the pack has to show it.
How the 8–12 cm standard is held: rows checked every day
A cucumber does not stop growing because the order says 12 cm. To keep the standard length, the production rows are checked every day and the fruit is harvested as soon as it reaches the right size. Fruit left on the plant simply grows past the standard. Daily picking is therefore not a refinement; it is the only way to fill a pack with pieces that match. When you compare offers, ask how often the rows are harvested.
Season: greenhouse mini cucumber in every month
Mini cucumbers are grown in glasshouses, and glasshouse production is what makes year-round supply possible. Our article on protected cultivation explains how loading continues through the winter in Antalya. Winter quantities are more limited. If you run a winter programme, give us your weekly requirement in advance so that it can be planned accordingly. The calendar for other products is in our season overview.
Quality criteria
Mini cucumbers are selected for export on:
- Length: 8–12 cm, with the pieces in one pack close to one another.
- Skin integrity: no cuts, scars or pressure marks.
- Colour: an even, fresh green. Yellowing is a sign of age or of ethylene exposure.
- Freshness: firm and crisp, with a glossy skin.
The fruit is picked slightly immature, before the seeds enlarge and harden; firmness and gloss show that the stage is right.
Temperature, shelf life and what not to load with it
Mini cucumbers are handled like standard cucumbers. The optimum is 10–12.5 °C at 95% relative humidity. Storage life is generally less than 14 days, and after two weeks shrivelling, yellowing and decay increase. Temperatures such as 7.2 °C are often used in trade, but they cause chilling injury after 2–3 days.
The product is highly sensitive to ethylene: 1–5 ppm is enough to speed up yellowing and decay. Mini cucumbers are therefore not loaded with bananas, melons or tomatoes. They can share a truck with aubergines, which travel at a similar temperature, but not with fruit carried at 0 °C. If your order also includes cherry tomatoes, plan them on a separate vehicle. The background is in our article on the cold chain.
Packaging: punnets, individually wrapped, and mini cucumber wholesale cases
Mini cucumbers can be prepared in punnets or wrapped one by one, depending on how you sell them. Both formats go into cartons:
- 30 × 40 × 12.5 cm carton
- 60 × 40 × 15 cm carton
Whether the order is for a retail programme or for mini cucumber wholesale, state both the pack and the carton in the enquiry. Cartons are stacked on 80 × 120 cm euro pallets. See packaging and case sizes in export for the formats in detail.
Fresh cucumbers are classified under HS code 0707.00. Please confirm the code with your customs broker before shipment.
Documents when you import mini cucumbers from Turkey
Hatipoğlu Tarım holds ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 10002, GLOBALG.A.P. IFA and GRASP certification. Every lot bound for Europe goes through residue analysis. For the limits themselves, see our article on EU pesticide MRLs.
Import process and how to get a quote
The product moves in six steps: harvest, cooling, grading, packing, cold storage and dispatch. All of them are carried out in house. Shipments are planned by the truck; a standard 13.60 m refrigerated truck takes 33 euro pallets.
To quote we need six details: type, length range, packaging (punnet or individually wrapped, and the carton size), weekly volume, delivery week and destination country. You can reach us by phone on +90 242 339 55 25, on WhatsApp on +90 534 260 07 25 or 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 the pack format, weekly volume and delivery week for your mini cucumber programme, and we will prepare a loading plan and a quotation.
