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Horticulture International Journal

Research Article Volume 2 Issue 5

Marketing structure of fresh fruit and vegetable in Turkey

Hasan Vural

Bursa Uludag University, Faculty of Agriculture Department of Agricultural Economics,Turkey

Correspondence: Hasan Vural, Agriculture Engineering Fatma Cihangir, Bursa Uludag University, Faculty of Agriculture Department of Agricultural Economics, Gorukle, 16059, Bursa, Turkey

Received: October 03, 2018 | Published: October 25, 2018

Citation: Vural H. Marketing structure of fresh fruit and vegetable in Turkey. Horticult Int J. 2018;2(5):277-279. DOI: 10.15406/hij.2018.02.00064

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Abstract

Turkey has a very high level of fruit and vegetable production potential due to its climate and soil characteristics. Agricultural arable land in the world and in our country is limited and this causes adequate and balanced nutrition problems for the rapidly increasing world population. Production and consumption of fruit and vegetables can be a solution for the problem of balanced nutrition. Fruit and vegetables are produced almost every season and in every region in Turkey unlike most countries in the world where production is limited to specific areas or seasons. According to Turkey Statistical Institute, total fruit and vegetable production in Turkey in 2016 were 49.2 million tons, of this, 30.2 million tons were from vegetable production and 19 million tons were from fruit production. Turkey also has an important position in the foreign trade as well as its fresh fruit and vegetables production potential. Turkey exported 6.9 million tons of fresh fruit and vegetables in 2016. Income from the total fruit and vegetable exports was 1.9 billion dollars. However there are a number of problems in the fresh fruit and vegetable marketing in Turkey even though Turkey has high production capacity and many different kinds of fruits and vegetables. These problems affect the development of the processed fruit and vegetable industry and producer and consumer prices. Due to undeveloped marketing structure and the high number of intermediaries, producer income is reduced and the marketing margin is increased. Farmers need to be organized, especially in marketing. In this study, it is aimed to examine the fruit and vegetable marketing structure and marketing problems in Turkey.

Keywords: fruit, marketing, marketing margin, vegetable, horticulture

Introduction

The production of fresh fruits and vegetables is an important sector in Turkish agriculture and the national economy. 25% of the total population is employed in the agriculture sector. Turkish fresh fruit and vegetable sub-sector has an important role because of its employment capacity. Approximately 5 million people work in that sector at various levels such as production, processing and marketing area. Also, fruit and vegetables sector is an important supply sector for processing and export industry and it is an important sector that creates demand for fertilizers, feed and pesticides besides fuel and electricity inputs. The limited amount of arable land available in the world is an important issue in terms of providing adequate and balanced nutrition. Production and consumption of fruits and vegetables is of great importance for the solution of balanced nutrition problems. Turkey is quite an important country for fresh fruit and vegetable production in terms of its geographical location, climate and soil properties. Almost every season and in every region of Turkey, fruit and vegetable production is possible. However, certain regions are taking more interest in producing these products. For example, the Mediterranean and the Aegean region of Turkey produce 54% of the total fruit production and they produce %49 of the total vegetables production.1

Marketing of fruits and vegetables is as important as the production of the products. Market structure for fruits and vegetables vary depending on the country or the product. In some cases produce can be delivered directly to the consumer by the producer. However lack of strong producer organizations increase loyalty to the intermediaries and agents and this causes an increase in the marketing margin. And also, agricultural production potential in Turkey is not yet being fully used and this issue causes problems that slow down the development of the marketing system. In order to achieve a strong industry for fruits and vegetables, improvements are needed for the production stages, processing and marketing.2 In this study the structure of fresh fruit and vegetables marketing in Turkey will examine and try to make proposals will reduce the marketing margin.

Supply of fresh fruit and vegetable

The amount of fresh fruit and vegetable production in Turkey was 49.2 million tons in 2016. When examining the total production of fresh fruit and vegetables, it is observed that vegetable production has the highest share. Total production of these crops generally is higher than every individual European country. But in some crops, production is less than that of some European countries such as olive production in Spain.
In Turkey vegetable production has a share of 65-66% in total fresh fruits and vegetables production. As it can be seen on the following table the share of fruit production is 33-35%. The shares of fruits and vegetables in total production have not changed much in current years (Table 1).

Years

Vegetables Production (mt)

Vegetables Production (%)

Fruit Production (mt)

Fruit Production (%100)

Total Production (mt)

Total Production (%)

2010

25.997.195

65

13.950.034

35

39.947.229

100

2011

27.547.462

66

14.388.128

34

41.935.590

100

2012

27.820.207

65

14.891.130

35

42.711.337

100

2013

28.448.218

65

15.326.786

35

43.775.004

100

2014

28.569.781

67

14.298.402

33

42.868.183

100

Table 1 Fresh fruit and vegetable production
Source: Turkish statistical ınstitute,20153

Item

2014

2016

Fresh Fruit

1.662.658.799

1.481.647,3

Fresh Vegetable

710.183.663

 463.348,1

Total

2.393.534.500

1.944.995,4

Table 2 Fresh fruit and vegetable exports in Turkey (000 $)
Source: Turkish statistical institute 20153

Years 

Tomatoes(tonne)

Cucumbers(tonne)

Melon(tonne)

Water melon(tonne)

2010

10 052 000

1 739 191

1 611 695

3 683 103

2011

11 003 433

1 749 174

1 647 988

3 864 489

2012

 11 350 000

 1 741 878

 1 688 687

 4 022 296

2013

 11 820 000

 1 754 613

 1 699 550

 3 887 324

2014

 11 850 000

 1 845 749

 1 707 302

 3 885 617

Table 3 Production of vegetables (For selected products)
Source: Turkish statistical ınstitute, 20153

Item

2013

2014

Fresh Fruit

1.638.827.300

1.662.658.799

Fresh Vegetable

691.838.548

710.183.663

Total

2.348.552.930

2.393.534.500

Table 4 Fresh fruit and vegetable exports in Turkey ($)
Source: Turkish statistical ınstitute, 2015

Foreign trade of fresh fruits and vegetables in Turkey

Turkey fresh fruit and vegetable exports as of 2016 are 1.9 billion $. 76% of this amount is from fruits and 24% is from vegetables (Table 2–4). When January-June 2015 exports of fresh fruits and a vegetable (according to FOB value) is analyzed, it can be seen that with the rate of decline of -18%, tomato is first with 281.3 million dollars in export value. Tomato is followed by lemon, orange, cherry, sour cherry and mandarin respectively. Decreases in the amount of exports of tomatoes, oranges, cherries and mandarin have caused to a decline of 13% in the total exports in January-June period (Table 5 & Table 6).

PRODUCT GROUP

01.01-30.06.2014

01.01-30.06.2015

Increase Decrease (%)

2015

KG

FOB USD

KG

FOB USD

KG

FOB USD

 (%)

Tomato

469.036.468

344.793.163

384.970.435

281.366.606

-18

-18

28

Lemon

171.607.971

114.159.820

223.892.659

128.656.963

30

13

13

Orange

204.169.757

114.173.878

165.359.602

84.622.865

-19

-26

9

Cherry

30.946.598

99.357.431

34.777.105

69.799.401

12

-30

7

Mandarın

132.520.721

77.952.268

109.583.299

59.450.237

-17

-24

6

Pepper

54.281.818

53.112.206

59.654.913

50.652.592

10

-5

5

Grapefuıt

120.412.703

62.415.433

88.191.322

42.712.743

-27

-32

4

Apple

83.876.273

28.372.924

96.929.145

33.845.049

16

19

3

Nar

46.703.621

31.963.039

53.660.561

31.684.799

15

-1

3

Aprıcot

22.169.535

21.958.809

47.026.625

29.163.979

112

33

3

Table 5 Turkey fresh fruit and vegetable exports
Source: Uludag exporters association general secretariat, 20154

ÜLKE

01.01-30.06.2014

01.01-30.06.2015

Increase Decrease (%)

2015 (%)

KG

FOB USD

KG

FOB USD

KG

FOB USD

Russıan federatıon

574.087.225

409.452.507

643.333.794

451.969.203

12

10

45

Iraq

403.203.630

170.034.052

365.524.564

148.407.658

-9

-13

15

Germany

48.042.571

93.812.268

46.458.218

68.313.021

-3

-27

7

Romanıa

68.972.340

50.186.492

61.557.445

44.552.402

-11

-11

4

Ukraıne

112.744.802

67.486.921

47.617.925

29.104.576

-58

-57

3

Bulgaria

88.527.077

54.480.822

58.932.490

26.145.892

-33

-52

3

Suudi arabia

39.327.749

24.701.875

44.936.219

23.776.469

14

-4

2

Georgıa

72.401.082

25.211.646

57.481.949

19.238.654

-21

-24

2

Netherlands

23.213.608

24.649.562

15.694.095

17.468.005

-32

-29

2

Syrıa

20.345.232

6.821.258

40.072.555

12.272.519

97

80

1

Table 6 Fresh fruit and vegetable export ın some countries
Source: Uludag exporters association general secretariat,20154
During January-June 2015 Russian Federation located first in export with 45% share. In the same period Iraq, Germany, Romania and Ukraine followed.

Marketing structure

Marketing services of agricultural products begin with harvesting, collecting, and continue with storage, processing, transportation and finishes by selling to the consumer. A minor amount of some products are prepared in the production field for retailing and end user. A major part of the production is marketed at different levels of the marketing channel. Agricultural products’ marketing channels vary according to products, organization level, the country's competitiveness and business policies. There are various marketing systems in the fresh fruit and vegetable trade in the world. Products are delivered to the consumer with a variety of marketing channels by brokers or directly.5 Some producers choose to deliver their goods to markets through brokers because of shipping costs. Brokers market these products to marketing channels such as retail and wholesale markets and then they are delivered to consumers through markets, supermarkets and grocery stores. In addition, producers can market their products directly to agricultural cooperatives and exporters. Another type of marketing channel can occur when fruits and vegetables are offered to the consumers by agricultural cooperatives. The longest of fresh fruit and vegetables marketing channel in Turkey; "Producer - collector - brokers (production place) - wholesale broker (consumption place) - retailer - consumer".1 Markets in a traditional marketing system in Turkey; producers, wholesalers and retailers are divided into three basic groups. Producer markets are markets where producers sell their products. The wholesale markets are where collectors buy the products from producers and sell to the processing facilities and large collectors. Retailers markets are sales locations in which the product is purchased by the end consumers.6 Marketing problems of fruit and vegetables in Turkey can be summarized as follows:

  1. Fragmented market structure (in the retail sector)
  2. Lack of producer organizations
  3. Lack of physical distribution
  4. Lack of government attention to the problem
  5. Lack of scale economy at the farm level, processing industry level, wholesale level and retail level
  6. Lack of consumer voluntary association
  7. Lack of legislation of market organizing and price discovery
  8. Lack of market information at all level in marketing channel and also export marketing channel.

Results

In sum, Turkey has a big potential and advantages in fruit and vegetables sector, although the sector has problems that has been indicated above in both internal and external markets. Fresh fruit and vegetables marketing is very important in agricultural sector and market structure varies depending on the product and country. The lack of strong producers' organizations in Turkey leads to a dependence on brokers. And this situation causes increases in marketing margin. In the agricultural sector in Turkey when producers who try to buy or sell goods directly enter the market, they are confronted with an organized trade and industry sector. Strategies that will increase the efficiency and quality of production must be determined. Marketing infrastructure should be improved. Organizations should be encouraged to provide horizontal and vertical integration. Producers should be informed about fruit and vegetable cultivation techniques and the results of the relevant researches should be communicated to the producers. In addition, producers should be encouraged to organize and the establishment of producers' associations should be supported.

Acknowledgements

None.

Conflict of interest

Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

References

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