Dried Turkish Apricots
Turkey is the largest producer and exporter in the world for sun dried apricots.
Malatya region is famous and most of the the fruit finds its best environment in the province of Malatya. Due to the composition arising from the ecology of the province, Malatya apricots gained economic value in the form of dried apricots for years.
Apricots from Malatya region (variety: Prunus armeniaca) are famous for the dry material content. It vary between 24 % and 30 %, other varieties are observed at only 20%.
Types of Dry Apricots:
There are two types are produced; Sulphured Dried Apricots and Natural Unsulphured Dried Apricots. Sulphured one is treated with sulphur dioxide (SO2) during drying process. And the natural type is dried naturally without treating sulphur or anything.
Sulphured Dried Apricots
Dried Apricots sulphured are treated with SO2 in order to provide color retention and longer shelf life. The color of this type changes from light yellow to orange. The SO2 content is max 2000 ppm for European countries and between 2500-3000 for USA and others. Also if the buyer needs a special content it can be adjusted as well. The color is lighter as the SO2 content increases.
Natural Unsulphured Dried Apricots
Brown Dried Apricots (dark dried apricots) differs from sulphured dried apricots: The colour of this type changes from light brown to dark brown, because these apricots are directly dried under the sunlight without being treated with SO2. And it is sweeter than the sulphured type.
Diced Dried Apricots Sulphured
Whole dried sulphured apricots are diced by machine into the required sizes: 5x5mm, 8x8mm, 10x10mm. And rices floor (3-5%) is added in order the pieces not to stick each other
Diced Natural Dried Apricots
Whole dried natural apricots are diced by machine into the required sizes, 5x5mm, 8x8mm, 10x10mm. And rices floor (3-5%) is added in order the pieces not to stick each other
Bulk Dried Apricots:
In bulk packing 12,5 kg , 10 kg, 5 kg, 3 kg, 2,5 kg, 1 kg carton boxes (with window) available.
Retail packing options for Turkey Apricots
A wide variety of retail packaging is available to meet your needs. In retail packing size is available from 150 gr up to 1 kg.
- Private label colorfully printed doypack bags (stand-up pouch)
- Quadro packs, pillow packs.
- Carton trays, round or rectangular plastic trays, wooden trays, foam trays…
Production of Dried Turkish Apricots:
Harvesting Turkish Apricots:
Harvest time of fresh apricots is August. Harvest time is determined with respect to the type of apricot, the altitude at which it is grown, the ripening, the getting yellow of its color, its softening and getting sweet and juicy. Harvest is made by hand, so the apricots are not damaged during harvest and they are harvested when sufficiently ripe.
How to dry Apricots:
Dehydrating Apricots are made in two different methods: natural dry and sulfured dry.
Sulfuring is useful to shorten the time of the drying process, to preserve the orange color, to prevent the product from getting infested with bugs and to increase the preservation period. Sulfuring, and the rest accomplish more than 80 % of the total drying efforts by drying in the sun. Spreading the apricots directly on earth, concrete, or cloths does 10 % of the drying processes.
In natural drying, the quality decreases because of the dirt and bruises that the apricots receive. In apricots that are day dried, bugs form a short time after the drying process, but nevertheless, these apricots are very tasteful.
Processing Sun Dried Apricots in the factory:
In our processing facility, we first fumigate and then wash the dried apricots, then calibrate to 8 different sizes, then dried apricots are waited in plastic baskets for some days to absorb the excess water in it. After humidity and SO2 tests, if the product meets the desired quality standards, handpicked by workers one by one. All the wounded, damaged, dotted and moldy berries are selected.
Storage Instructions for Dried Apricots
Temperature: Display, consume and keep rest of the package at room temperatures less than +20 C (+68 F).
Humidity: Avoid humid and stagnant environment. Optimum relative humidity is 50-60%. Keep in the air ventilated area.
Sunlight: Avoid direct sunlight, although it has no effect on quality but direct sunlight may warm the dried apricots to make them more dry or activate microorganisms, if environment is humid.
Foreign odours: Avoid stocking near chemicals, fuels, exhaust gases, debris or any other foreign odour source.
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