The 2020 nut and dried fruit harvest in Turkey

Wonderfully sweet fruit and crunchy nuts despite an up and down season

[10/20] Like every year, we are looking forward to freshly harvested dried fruit and nuts from our Turkey project. Because autumn means harvest time! Having a good yield is not self-evident because 2020 was a turbulent year in Turkey. The struggling Turkish economy and Covid 19 made the lives of our Turkish friends and colleagues rather difficult.

The ongoing climate change made the cultivation of apricots and sultanas difficult this year. But thanks to the tireless effort of our farmers, we are able to enjoy beautiful fruits and nuts at more or less stable prices.

Contrary to our usual practice, Rapunzel staff could not travel to Turkey this year in order to get an idea about the harvest and visit friends and colleagues. In the current situation it is safety first and no travels to Turkey. However, thanks to long-term and fair supplier relations with our Turkish farmers and partners we can fully rely on our Turkish colleagues.

Memet and Zehra have already been working several years as harvest workers with Hassan Özmen

All in all a good harvest year

Persistent rain during the flowering season facilitated the distribution of the Monilia fungal disease in apricots. A few farmers lost an entire harvest.

The fruit that withstood the rain, developed well and can be consumed without any problems thanks to thorough controls!

Hazelnuts have years when the bushes deliver good yields and years when the plants themselves develop and only small yields are produced. Our project farmers at the Black Sea coast experienced a so-called "timber year". Thanks to the organic hazelnut project that Rapunzel is establishing in Azerbaidjan, Rapunzel was able to compensate the lower harvest with nuts from Azerbaidjan.

The sultanas yield was good, but some farmers also suffered losses. In normal years, the month of May is characterized by moderate temperatures. This year, however, there were several days with temperatures of 45 °C which meant extreme temperature stress for the grapes. In June, the farmers were challenged by hail storms and strong rainshowers and in July, the differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures were extreme. Those grapes, however, that survived the temperature stress developed very well.

Figs give us great pleasure this year. In the spring, during the fruit setting phase, it was too hot for some figs - many figs dried up.

In reaction, some fig trees set additional fruits and today we are very happy about a good harvest.

This year showed once more: farmers are extremely dependant on the weather. Sometimes, unfavorable weather conditions may even threaten the farmers' existence. Therefore, Rapunzel cooperates continually and over the long-term with the farmers, especially in difficult years.

We support our farmers with professional advice and with fair buying prices and we hope that we will soon be able to visit our Turkish friends and colleagues again.