Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
6th International Postharvest Symposium, Antalya, Türkiye, 8 - 12 Nisan 2009, cilt.877, ss.979-987
The total apple production in the world is about 60 million ton. Turkey is the seventh country in terms of production quantity (2 million ton, 3,2%) in the world. Turkey exports approximately 25-30 thousand ton and its export value is $ 10-11 million. The parity of export to production is very low when compared with other apple producer countries. Even though world apple demand is so diverse and high, Turkey does not seem to benefit from this opportunity. Furthermore, every region in Turkey is suitable for apple growing due to appropriate geographical and climatic conditions. The earliest apple harvest starts from August and continues until the middle of October. Following the harvest period, cold storage is necessary for preservation of apples during the period between December and June. After the harvest period, it is not possible to market entire products and it is necessary to extend the marketing activities for the whole year by considering supply and demand balance. As a matter of fact, one of the aims of agricultural policies is to protect from income losses and consumers from high prices. For this reason, it is essential that apple supply should be distributed regularly to the market during the year to meet consumer demand and to sell at high market prices. At that point, cold storage practices are needed for this purpose. In Turkey, cold storage practice is applied for apple and other storable fruits. However, the demand for cold storage is affected by several variables such as cost of storage, conditions of storage, product demand structure, climate, regional and product market features. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of cold storage practices on marketing and price level and to determine economical aspects of alternative marketing and storage strategies of apple products in Turkey.