Major Turkish grape producer Adalya Dis Ticaret expects to export some 2,000 tons (MT) of Sultana and Thompson grapes this season - around 400MT more than the previous campaign, with fruit quality likely to be above average.

Adalya’s general manager, Abdullah Bulut, told www.freshfruitportal.com that although the total harvest was forecast to be lower than 2012 due to weather conditions causing the season to begin one week later than usual, the outlook for the campaign was positive.

"Compared with last year, the grape season this year is very satisfactory and above our quality expectations," he said.

"We are going to export fresh from the field until the end of October and then from our protected cold rooms until the end of December."

One of the top three largest grape producers in Turkey, Adalya currently exports principally to the U.K. and Germany, with smaller volumes shipped to Austria and the Netherlands.

Although the company has made some occasional shipments to Russia and Kazakhstan in the past, Bulut says Adalya has no plans at present to expand further into these or any other markets.

For Bulut, the secret to the success of the long-established firm is that it "established principles a long time ago to work totally consumer oriented".

"We are involved with our products from the very first production stage and keep everything under control until the products reached the end consumer, which I would say has given us good marks within the market," he claimed.

"The biggest problem some other firms have is realising sales deals due to poor packaging standards or low product quality."

www.freshfruitportal.com