The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey has decided to limit the exports of tomatoes until April 14, 2023.
The ministry said in a statement that “due to the abnormal recent rise in the price of tomatoes in Turkey and the terrible consequences of the earthquake, which directly affected 11 provinces, it became necessary to take measures to ensure food security and stabilize prices.”
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As EastFruit analysts believe, the decision by the Turkish government will have a serious impact on the greenhouse tomato market in countries that depend on imports from Turkey already next week. Primarily, these are Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Romania, and several other countries, because it is Turkey that usually supplies the most greenhouse tomatoes to these markets in March.
For example, Ukrainian importers of greenhouse vegetables are already trying to find alternatives to Turkish suppliers from next week. Theoretically, they could be replaced by imports from Morocco, Iran, or even Spain (premium-quality tomatoes), but full replacement of Turkish supplies is impossible, as these countries may not have the necessary volumes of tomatoes needed right now.
Therefore, a serious jump in prices can be expected by the end of next week in the countries dependent on the imports of Turkish tomatoes given their absence, and the only limiting factor may be one of the exceptions specified in the decision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey.
It says that exports to Northern Cyprus, Palestine, and Azerbaijan are not subject to the restriction, and it is the presence of the latter on the list of exceptions that allows us to conclude that Turkey has not completely disappeared from the regional greenhouse tomato market. Naturally, we are not talking about the re-export of tens of thousands of tonnes of products, because in Turkey itself there is also a shortage of greenhouse tomatoes. Nevertheless, there is the possibility of re-export through Azerbaijan, because it has already been a major re-exporter of vegetables and fruits from another neighboring country (Iran) until that time.
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