Dear All,

I hope all’s well with you.

We would like to share the actual market situation for sun dried tomatoes as well as the latest prices to update your information.

The market is stabile for sun dried tomatoes with the support of the regular demand from buyers for the second part of the season. The good quality raw material is getting very limited day by day as most of the stocks passed from farmers to the producer companies so far.

The planting seems to be less than last season which is not a very good news for new crop sun dried tomatoes. The farmers are not willing to plant tomatoes as they prefer more corn and cotton due to higher profits on these items. The labor cost of tomatoes is higher than corn and cotton which is another reason that the farmers are cold to plant tomatoes for the next season. The sales of tomato seedlings is lower than previous season so far. Another reason is to find workers for tomatoes planting and sun drying stage. It was one of the biggest problems of last season which will probably effect the new crop tomatoes negatively again.

The tomato paste companies are commiting themselves at TL 0,20 per Kg which is raftly %10 higher than last season's prices. In this respect, we are expecting the new crop sun dried tomatoes to be more expensive by %5-10 than actual price levels. The customers who covers tomatoes presently may have an advance pricewise before the new season according to our opinion.

US$ currency is very stabile these days which effects the market in a positive way.. 1 US$ is equal to 1,81 TL presently.

Another development from our side. We finished the year of 2012 by being the largest producer / exporter of sun dried tomatoes and oven dried tomatoes in Trueky. We proudly announce you that our sun dried tomatoes company is public listed at Istanbul Stock Exchange since 13.12.2011. We builded up a new cool storage beside our factory with the latest storage systems. Our company is BRC and Marks & Spencer approved presently.

Please kindly find below our indicative price levels for the main types of sun dried tomatoes just to update your information.

For European market: 
Unsulphured or Max. 200 ppm Sulphured Sun Dried Tomatoes Halves at € 3.125.-/Mt.
Unsulphured or Max. 200 ppm Sulphured Sun Dried Tomatoes RTE Halves at € 2.775.-/Mt.

For USA, Australia and Canada markets: 
High Sulphured Sun Dried Tomatoes Halves at US$ 4.675.-/Mt.
High Sulphured Sun Dried Tomatoes RTE Halves at US$ 3.775.-/Mt.
All prices are FOB Izmir, Prompt shipments, Crop 2012, Subject To Final Confirmation. You can add € 50 and US$ 75 per metric tonne on above prices for Diced and Julienne Stripes in case of need.

We suggest all our customers to cover up their needs for the rest of the season to be on the safe side against limited availability of good quality raw material.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Best regards, 
Yasin Durmus 
Managing Director