EastFruit reports about the surprising events in the Turkish hazelnut market. Turkish Grain Board (TMO), a governmental body that buys and sells hazelnuts from Turkish producers with the aim of supporting the market, has unexpectedly begun selling its own stocks.
There were expectations that the TMO would sell after the elections in Turkey to be held in June 2023. The idea behind this was that the government would not increase the supply on the market as it would most likely result in lower prices and displeased local sellers.
Contrary to the expectations (Mundus-Agri), TMO started selling at the beginning of February. The decision was made to sell 20 000 tonnes of Levant quality hazelnuts from the 2021 harvest and 8 000 tonnes from 2022 – 5 000 tonnes of Levant quality and 3 000 tonnes of Giresun quality. TMO’s announced price range was 58-61 TRY/kg, which was close to the free market prices. As a result, hazelnut prices dropped down by about 9% straight away.
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Interestingly, the drop stopped very soon and the prices increased again. Prices on the Turkish market have gone up in a week (FindikTV). Following the earlier decrease of 9%, hazelnut prices went up by 7% on February 13. Thus, they are a bit lower than they were before the TMO started selling. Mundus-Agri reports that the weak demand is still an issue for the hazelnut market.
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