Dried Fruits

The large area, which covers Turkistan, Middle Asia, and Western China, is considered to be the motherland of apricot. About 5000 years ago, apricot was known in this area. Apricot was first brought to Anatolia in the fourth century BC during the military expeditions of the Great Iskender.. Apricot was taken to Italia and then to Greece during the Roman and Persian wars in the first century BC, by the tradesmen. It took long years for apricot to spread to the other European countries from Italy and Greece, and it was taken to Spain and England in the 13th century, and to France and USA in the 17th century.
Today apricot is spread almost all over the world, but the main places are Mediterranean Countries, Europe, Middle Asia, America, and Africa.
When we look at the world production and export of dried apricot, it can be seen that Turkey is the leader without any serious competitors.
Turkey realizes 82% of the total dried apricot trade of the world.
Apricot cultivation, which is spread in most of the agricultural regions of Turkey, finds its best environment in the province of Malatya. Due to the composition arising from the ecology of the province, Malatya origin apricots gained economic value in the form of dried apricots for years This province, which is located in the Central Eastern Anatolian Region, produces nearly half of the crop. Malatya, produces almost the export oriented dried apricot in Turkey.

On the other hand, the province of Izmir has been recorded as the main export area for Turkish dried fruits like apricots, sultana raisins, figs, thanks to the established big processing and exporting companies by years.

Sizes, Quality Classes, Varieties:

The most important varieties, according to the quantity produced, are HACIHALILOGLU, SOGANCI, KABAASI and CATALOGLU. “HACIHALILOGLU” apricot forms 90 % of the whole apricot production in Malatya.

In apricot production, especially Darende, Hekimhan, Akçadag and Central districts are the significant ones in Malatya province.

The characteristic, which makes it world wide famous, is the dry material content. While the dry material content of Malatya apricots, vary between 24 % and 30 %, the maximum dry material content of other varieties was observed at only 20 %.

There are two groups, natural and sulphured and four quality classes, these are extra, first, second, and industrial classes. In Turkish Standards- TS485, all the class and size details can be found. The two important quality criteria of dried apricots with regard to this standard are, moisture and SO2 contents, which should not exceed 25 % and 0,25 % (2500ppm) by weight respectively.

SIZE
NUMBER OF THE BERRIES PER KILOGRAM