Sultana Raisins: Price drop expectations

Market players stated that buyers expect price drops due to the massive depreciation of the TL during last week, but they added that this seems not likely due to related rising production costs. On the contrary, the current offered prices at 1550 USd/mt for type nr. Nine could increase shortly.

The sultana raisins markets remained calm last week. TMO has bought approx 40.000 mt so far; farmers continue to deliver their products to TMO.

Type nr. Nine is traded at 12.20-12.50 TL/kg on the Market, which is slightly higher than the previous week. The transactions at the Commodity Exchange in Izmir are still poor. Exporters still offer conventional sultana raisins at 1550-1600 Usd/mt, and Organic sultana raisins are provided at 2.400-2.450 Usd/mt on a FOB basis. However, the expectations are that price increases could start within the next future.

Market players stated that the exported quantities, since the beginning of the season, are more or less the same as last Season during the pandemic throughout the World. This raises the question of how the purchases will continue during the following months as most buyers mostly buy prompt and avoid making long-term contracts.

The problems in the availability of the containers seem to be reduced however exporters claim that freight charges are still very high. Depreciation of the Turkish Lira continued after the interest rate cuts of the Central Bank. It resulted in the fact that the Turkish Lira noted today the Usd/TL rate at 9.58 TL ( 9,32 last week) and Euro/TL rate at 11.13 TL levels ( 10.83 last week).

Until 23 Oct. 2021, noted 45.915 mt, which was 46.386 last year during the same period. Turkey exported 5793 mt of sultana raisins the previous week, which was 5944 mt during the same week of the previous Season.

Source: Trade, etc.