Turkish farmers uneasily started their harvest due to the negativities of the epidemic that could happen to the export markets; yet, exports worth 1 million 753 thousand dollars was made via air cargo during the 3 months of epidemic.
According to the data from Aegean Exporters Union (EİB), Turkish exporters exported raw vegetables and fruits worth 2 million 811 thousand dollars by air cargo between in March and until the end of the May.
Fresh spring fruits such as plum, cherry, strawberry, apricot and peach that worth $1,753,167 made up the 62 percent of this export. Thanks to the airfreight export.
Turkey exported; 224 tons of cherry worth $1,096,519 , 154 tons of apricot worth $383,027 , 23 tons of plum worth $122,937 , 33 tons of strawberry worth $95,136 and 14 tons of peach worth $55,536 in the period between March and May via air cargo.
‘’The discount in Turkish Cargo benefited exporters a lot.’’
Cengiz Balık, Vice President of Aegean Exporters Union of Raw Fruits and Vegetables, stated that air cargo has helped both exporters and farmers during the epidemic. He thanked Turkish Cargo for the support and added:
‘’ Turkish Cargo has helped us a lot. The present delivery costs of air cargo were expensive due to banned and restricted flights, absence of passenger transportation and more during the epidemic. Then we, exporters spoke out to the relevant authorities about these expensive costs and we said that if any discounts were made we would be relieved. A 30 percent discount was made to the delivery costs and many fruit exporters are able to use air cargo now, thanks to the Turkish Cargo and the government. We all had doubts about the harvest and it’s sale but it is all on the right track now; in addition to that, passenger transportation also will start soon and our delivery costs will decrease even more due to lower delivery cost of passenger transportation.’’
Balık compared the current delivery costs for per kg and the costs that were at the beginning of the harvest, he stated that; costs were $2,7 to Far East and between $1,5 and $1.2 to the near markets, yet now they are $1,7 to Far East and $1 to the near markets.
Exporter Ali Uçak also mentioned about the convenience of air cargo during the pandemic:
‘’The discount in the delivery costs enabled us to do more exports. Air cargo is always a huge convenience especially for the Far East market because the exports will be transported to there within 2 days, thus it is healthy and convenient. 30 percent discount was made, yet we expect it to be around 50 percent so that we can export more and bring more forex currency to our country. We need to preserve the farmer’s efforts.’’
souce: AA / translated by Bazaar Team