Two seasons of extreme conditions have changed how Turkish dried apricots need to be bought. A buyer who contracts in 2026/27 on the habits of 2024 will misjudge both price and availability. This report sets out what the official figures say, how the market has moved since, and what a buyer should verify before signing.
Türkiye is not one supplier among several in this product. On International Nut and Dried Fruit Council figures published by Türkiye's Ministry of Trade, world dried apricot production in the 2024/25 season was 167,917 tonnes, of which Türkiye produced 107,517 tonnes — a 64 percent share, ahead of Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China. On the export side the concentration is greater still: Türkiye accounts for 67 percent of world dried apricot exports, followed by Uzbekistan at 13 percent and Afghanistan at 6 percent. Germany appears at 4 percent as a transit country rather than a producer.
Production sits in Malatya above all, with Elazığ, Erzincan, Sivas, Kars and Iğdır contributing. Malatya alone supplies more than half of Türkiye's fresh apricot crop, and roughly 90 to 95 percent of what it dries is exported. In the 2024/25 season Türkiye's fresh apricot production was 1,290,440 tonnes and dried apricot production 107,517 tonnes.
Demand is concentrated too. The United States took 24.7 percent of Türkiye's dried apricot exports by value in 2025, ahead of France at 10.0 percent, Germany at 8.2 percent and the United Kingdom at 5 percent. The same four countries dominate world imports.
In mid-April 2025 Malatya was hit by what the trade widely described as the worst frost event in a century. The consequence was not a poor crop but effectively no crop: the 2025/26 Turkish harvest was put at 2,000 tonnes. Prices on the domestic market doubled within weeks and trading largely stopped.
The trade statistics show the damage in a way that is easy to misread. Türkiye's dried apricot exports fell from USD 405 million in 2024 to USD 329 million in 2025, a decline of 18.6 percent in value. That decline is smaller than the collapse in volume, because prices were rising through the second half of the year. Read the two together and the picture is a market selling far less fruit at far higher prices.
The 2026 season is a different picture. The INC's preliminary May 2026 estimate placed the Turkish crop at 75,000 tonnes within a world total of 132,840 tonnes. Malatya's own production target, reported in July 2026, was above 67,000 tonnes. Harvest reports through August described high yields and good quality at altitude, including at 1,800 metres in Kurşunlu, following the previous year's losses.
The tempting conclusion is that supply is normal again. It is not, and the reason is stocks rather than harvest.
The 2025/26 season ended with a carry-over of roughly 4,000 tonnes, which is also the opening stock for 2026/27. In a normal year the pipeline holds many times that. A recovered crop therefore has two jobs before it can relieve price: refill the pipeline, then meet demand. And even 75,000 tonnes remains well below the 107,517 tonnes of 2024/25. Export registrations show the effect: 20,728 tonnes at USD 9,286 per tonne for the scarce period, against 57,548 tonnes at USD 4,950 per tonne in the comparable earlier period — roughly a third of the volume at nearly double the price.
Indicative price ranges published in July 2026 were:
| Grade | Basis | Range |
| Conventional, unsulphured | FOB Malatya | EUR 7.8–8.6 / kg |
| Sulphured | FOB Malatya equivalent | EUR 7.3–8.0 / kg |
| Organic | FOB Malatya | EUR 9.3–10.3 / kg |
| Conventional sulphured, Turkish origin | FCA warehouse, Netherlands / Poland | EUR 5.2–6.7 / kg |
Indicative FOB Mersin quotations for 2026 crop spanned EUR 6,200–11,800 per tonne depending on size and specification — a spread wide enough that a quotation without a full specification tells a buyer almost nothing.
Crop year, in writing. This is the single most important clause this season. With opening stocks near zero, the difference between 2025 and 2026 crop material is not a nuance. Require the crop year on the contract, on the packing list and on the carton.
Size, by count. Turkish dried apricots are graded by pieces per kilogram, not by adjectives. Number 1 runs up to about 100 pieces per kilo; number 8 is 220 pieces and above. "Jumbo" and "extra" are commercial descriptions, not grades. Specify the number.
Moisture. Fancy-grade specifications sit at 20.0–24.0 percent total moisture. Below the range the fruit hardens and loses weight; above it, shelf life and mould risk become the buyer's problem. Ask which method was used to measure it.
Sulphur dioxide, against your own market's rules. EU Regulation 1333/2008 permits up to 2,000 mg/kg SO₂ in dried apricots. Separately, Regulation 1169/2011 requires sulphites to be declared as an allergen above 10 mg/kg, which in practice means all conventionally sulphured fruit carries the declaration. If you are selling into a retailer with a tighter internal limit than the legal one, that limit belongs in the contract, not in an email.
Unsulphured and organic claims, at source. Unsulphured fruit must be free of sulphites, and the darker colour is the normal consequence of that, not a defect. Organic status should be confirmed in the certifying body's own register rather than accepted as a PDF certificate. A certificate scan proves that a document once existed; it proves nothing about current validity or scope.
Defect tolerances. Widely used Fancy-grade tolerances allow a maximum of 4.0 percent combined serious damage and 10.0 percent combined defects, with sub-limits for discoloured, speckled, hail-marked, sunburnt and bruised fruit. Agree the tolerance table and the inspection point before shipment, not after arrival.
Who actually packs. In a short-supply season the number of intermediaries between the grower and the invoice tends to rise. Establish who owns the packhouse, whose name appears on the health certificate, and whether the company quoting is the exporter of record. A season of scarcity is exactly when this matters most.
Volume is back; slack is not. Buyers should expect firm pricing through the 2026/27 season, contract on specification rather than on price alone, and treat crop-year declaration and packer identity as contract terms rather than courtesies.
TRade-TR provides supplier verification, pre-shipment inspection and due diligence for buyers sourcing from Türkiye. Contact us to discuss a specific requirement.
