The Walnut Producers Association (CÜD), which produces domestic walnuts at world standards with 35 million walnut trees planted on 1 thousand decares of land with its members, has taken an important step in the branding of domestic walnuts. With this step, which will carry local walnuts to national chain markets and selected points, CÜD will not only allow consumers to meet local, fresh, delicious and high quality walnuts, but also pave the way for providing an important incentive to walnut producers.
The Walnut Producers Association, which was established by the union of agricultural enterprises engaged in walnut production with modern agricultural practices, took the first step towards branding domestic walnuts. With the 2023 harvest season, CÜD A.Ş. Ömer Ergüder, President of the Walnut Producers Association (CÜD), informed that they are preparing to introduce local walnuts with the logo to the consumers, and stated that they will benefit both walnut consumers and producers.
CÜD A.Ş. will open the doors of national chain markets to domestic producers.
Underlining that each orchard's entry into national chain markets is limited due to its production capacity, Ergüder stated that CÜD A.Ş will be a key in this sense and said, “Each garden can enter the market with small sales points according to its capacity. Chain markets, on the other hand, have to prefer imported products instead of domestic products, since they can purchase on a container basis. CUD A.S. We aim to combine the power of gardens and meet the demand of chain markets. We design a strategic logistics to provide added value to the manufacturer. Thus, we will enable the delicious, high quality and local walnuts produced by the members of our association to reach the table from the garden as soon as possible.”
Native of walnut, delicious of walnut
Stating that walnuts produced in our country are much superior to imported products in terms of quality and health, and that they are delivered from the garden to the table in a short time without human touch, Ergüder said, “We see that low-quality and stale products that have entered our country through imported means are on the shelves, especially in recent years. It is also a separate problem that they are exposed to chemical application (fumigation) against pests and insects. When we look at the world ranking, we are in the first place with Iran, Syria and China in terms of walnut consumption per capita. One of our biggest goals is to meet this demand with local, high quality, delicious and healthy walnuts. In this journey we embarked on, we will work with a professional food inspection company for standard quality in all our gardens. In the next harvest period, we will distribute our healthy and delicious walnuts, which we have carefully and untouched, collected from our fields to CÜD A.Ş. We will present it to consumers in nets with logo. Through the barcodes on the products, consumers will be able to see in which garden the walnuts they purchase were produced. The nets will be 1 kilogram in the first stage, then we will pack larger scales for wholesale chains. We are planning to sell walnut kernels in the future, on the way we set out primarily for the sale of shelled walnuts. Our priority is Türkiye, but we are planning to participate in fairs abroad as of next year. Our biggest goal is to bring our consumers closer to local walnuts and to increase demand.”
Incentive for producers
Stating that they have made great efforts to keep the sector alive, increase awareness, and present the domestic product to the consumer in a more positive way, Ergüder said that CÜD A.Ş. is also a great place for manufacturers with its quality products, correct pricing, strong promotion and correct sales channels. He said it would be an incentive. Ergüder said, “Two-thirds of the walnut consumed in Turkey is met by imports. The leading importing countries are the USA, Chile, China and Ukraine. As Central Asia and Turkey, although we are the homeland of walnuts, we can only produce about one-third of the walnuts we consume. CÜD A.Ş. will enable local walnut producers to overcome obstacles and take the right steps. We anticipate that there will be an increase in production volume in the long run thanks to this.”
“We need to cooperate to increase the yield of domestic walnuts”
Expressing that the only way to compete with imported walnuts is to increase efficiency in production, Ergüder said, “We should increase our walnut production per decare without compromising our product quality, which is the primary reason for preference, and while doing this, we should be able to keep our input costs under control. We continue to be the biggest supporters of our association members on this path, it is very important for all of us to cooperate in order to increase the efficiency of domestic walnuts. We invite all domestic producers to our association in order to reduce expenses, increase our knowledge and meet the consumer with quality, delicious and healthy walnuts.”