Dear All,

I hope all’s well with you.

Please find attached our specifications for new crop Sultanas & Thompson raisins for your information. The berry counts of crop 2017 Sultanas are slightly larger than last season therefore the sizing parameters in our specifications have been adjusted accordingly. 

You can find below a brief market report about the actual situation of Turkish Sultanas for your info.

The harvest period is about to be over at Manisa region for crop 2017 Sultanas. The last goods will be dried by the next 10 days and the sun drying operations will be concluded accordingly. We can say that the weather conditions were pretty suitable during sun drying stage except a few rainy days at the region.

Actually, we are expecting a slightly smaller crop than last year due to less productivity at the vineyards. Our estimation is raftly 280.000 mtons for the upcoming season. It is a normal quantity and can be considered as an average crop size. The carry over quantity is expected to be around 30.000 mtons so the total of 310.000 mtons will be sufficient for the upcoming season. 

The new crop will be slightly bigger size in berries. We expect the “Standard” size berries to be in between 250 – 300 berries per 100 gr for the upcoming season. Jumbo size Sultanas will be more available where the small sizes will be limited during the new season. Type 10 and Type 11 Sultanas will be valuable again as the subject goods are less available than usual years due to higher humidty in the air at sundrying stage. The price difference between Type 9 and Type 10 Sultanas will be around US$ 100.-/Mton this season.

The new crop raw material prices have started up at 3,8 TL/Kg by the beginning of September at Izmir Bourse which was inline with the expectations before the new season. The farmers were complaining about the subject price level which is even lower than their cost pricing for crop 2017 goods therefore the availability of the Sultanas was getting limited step by step in the market. The farmers who were in urgent needs were selling their goods however the others prefer to wait for better price levels as the subject price level is a loss for them.

Afterwards, Turkish Grain Office (TMO) declared that they will buy crop 2017 Sultanas at 4 TL/Kg from the market step by step during the season. The buying quantity is unknown however the subject announcement increased the better price expectations at farmers side so the availability of the new crop goods became even tighter last week. The raw material prices increased at Izmir Bource by %2-3 immediately.

As of this week, Tariş announced their buying prices to the market. The minimum pruchasing price of Type 9 Sultanas is declared by 4,08 TL/Kg which is higher than current market levels therefore the raw material prices started to increase at Izmir Bourse again. In general, we are expecting the prices of Turkish Sultanas to increase slightly more in the coming days. Of course, the currency situation, weather conditions, supply/demand balance, etc... will be the major factors effecting the market on the long term.

Please let us have your inquiries on Sultanas so we can offer our very best prices to extend our business volume together...

Looking forward to hear from you.

Best regards, 
Yasin Durmus 
Managing Director