A RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABILITY OF TURKISH FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES EXPORT

Export orientation of fresh fruits and vegetables (FFVs) producers in Turkey is both necessary for increasing farm incomes and inevitable due to the high production exceeding local demand.  Evolving international market demand due to social and economic conditions affects the producers. Accordingly, producers mainly prefer using intermediaries in their export contracts in order to cope with fluctuations. Yet, the security of export orientation is an important concern for increasing or maintaining FFVs production. This is also related with substitutability of agricultural production with alternative economic activities as tourism in the region. Accordingly, the tendency of producers to maintain export contracts should be assessed in relation with the intermediary and logistics use, number of contracts and importing countries, export income as well as the specific exportable products.  In this study, 24 exporter firms from Antalya wholesale market were surveyed and the aforementioned relationships were questioned with chi-square analysis. It was understood that the professionalization of FFVs exports has been rising with respect to management structures. Yet, improvement in resources utilised, satisfaction level and tendency to continue export operations are related with number of export destinations and frequency of exports. The relationship is bilateral that, if the export operations rise, there is a possibility to increase export endowments and focus on increasing and maintaining exports.