Dear All,

I hope all’s well with you and wish you a happy new year…

The market is picking up at Malatya these days. The raw material prices are staying at around 11 TL/Kg levels presently and we are expecting an increase step by step during January 2019..

The availability of the raw material is still tight in the market as the farmers are not very much willing to sell their stocks with the expectation of even higher prices in the coming weeks. It’s expected that the demand for dried apricots will rise up by the beginning of January 2019 and the subject situation may effect the raw material prices directly. We are expecting higher raw material prices at Malatya from January onwards with the increase of the demand from the buyers. If the US$ currency won’t increase against Turkish Lira in parallel to raw material prices, we may see higher export prices for apricots accordingly.

The US$ currency is staying around 5,3 TL levels these days which is a pretty low rate comparing early season rates at 7 TL... The low US$ currency is effecting the apricot market in a negative way for sure. Turkey will have an election in March 2019 and it is expected that the currency will not move so much before the elections. In this respect, we expect the apricot prices stay at today’s levels during the first quarter of 2019. From now on, the direction of the currency will continue to be one of the major factor for apricot pricing in the coming days which is pretty difficult to estimate...

The bloom for next crop apricots will take place during March – April 2019 period. The weather conditions during these months will be effecting the market directly. In case of bad weather conditions and smaller crop signals for next season, the current crop prices will be effected negatively and the market will increase accordingly. In case of positive developments during the bloom period, we can expect an easier market for the rest of the season step by step.

The big sizes are less available in the market therefore the price gap between big and small sizes are getting larger in the market presently. Natural apricots are pretty much availabile without any problem right now...

In conclusion, we are expecting a rising market for the first quarter of 2019 on apricots. The elections in March 2019 will effect the currency and the bloom of next year’s crop at the same period will determine the market for the rest of the season. All buyers are taking their positions for the first quarter of 2019 to protect themselves from any negative development during the bloom period in March – April... As the prices are pretty reasonable these days, we suggest all our clients to cover up their needs for the rest of the season accordingly.

We also would like to share the following statistics with you for the export quantities of dried apricots during the new season in comparision to last season.

DRIED APRICOT EXPORT TOTAL QUANTITY TURKEY	From 01.08.2017 to 29.12.2017		From 01.08.2018 to 29.12.2018
	Quantity (mton)	Average Price ($/mton)	Quantity (mton)	Average Price ($/mton)
THE WHOLE APRICOTS	43.646	2.771	41.007	2.759
INDUSTRIAL APRICOTS	4.257	1.249	5.069	1.125
DICED APRICOTS	3.265	2.302	3.471	2.186

 

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

 

Types of Apricots	Prices	Prices
	Max. 2.000 ppm SO2 for EU	Max. 3.000 ppm SO2 for USA, Australia Max. 2.500 ppm SO2 for Canada
Type 1	3.700 US$/Mton	3.500 US$/Mton
Type 2	3.350 US$/Mton	3.150 US$/Mton
Type 3	3.100 US$/Mton	2.900 US$/Mton
Type 4	2.900 US$/Mton	2.700 US$/Mton
Type 5	2.800 US$/Mton	2.600 US$/Mton
Type 6	2.500 US$/Mton	2.400 US$/Mton
Type 7	2.200 US$/Mton	2.100 US$/Mton
Type 8	1.900 US$/Mton	1.850 US$/Mton
Industrial	1.550 US$/Mton	1.500 US$/Mton
Diced 10x10 mm	1.900 US$/Mton	1.850 US$/Mton
Diced 5x5 mm	1.950 US$/Mton	1.900 US$/Mton

 

All prices are FOB Izmir, Prompt shipments, Crop 2018, Subject To Final Confirmation.

We are waiting for your concrete inquiries to prepare our firm offers for apricots to refresh our businesses together.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Best regards, 

Yasin Durmus 
Managing Director