Dried fruits

Dried apricots

There are two types in the trade and no third: sulphured, treated with sulphur dioxide, holding a bright stable orange; and natural, untreated, dark brown, more expensive and sold into a different market. The choice is not a matter of taste. The permitted sulphur dioxide level differs from market to market, is stated in an analysis attached to each shipment, and must match the destination's limit before loading rather than after. Grading is by pieces per kilo — the lower the number, the larger the fruit and the higher the price — starting at Jumbo and working down. Moisture normally sits in the low twenties; above what was agreed you are buying water by weight and inviting spoilage in store.

Dried figs

The Sarılop variety from Aydın — Germencik, İncirliova, Nazilli — is the base. The recognised trade classifications distinguish fruit pressed in even layers, fruit packed loose, and fruit pulled by hand, each with its own size, price and market. The real file on figs is not size, it is aflatoxin: it is behind most rejections of Turkish fig consignments worldwide. Serious packers in Aydın run the fruit under ultraviolet sorting, because contaminated fruit fluoresces under it and is then pulled by hand. We ask for that sorting step to be documented, and for an aflatoxin analysis from an accredited laboratory on each batch rather than a general certificate for the plant.

Packing and supply formats

Wholesale packing is normally 5 and 10 kg cartons with a food-grade inner liner; retail runs 200–500 g packs printed with the importer's brand. The liner is not a detail: dried fruit breathes and takes up odours, and a carton without a proper liner arrives smelling of the container. For long voyages or hot destinations we ask for vacuum or modified-atmosphere packing, and we fix in the purchase order that the stated weight is net and not gross — a recurring dispute that surfaces on the first scale in the importer's warehouse.

The analyses we ask for

In this category we do not work from a general certificate framed on the factory wall. For each batch we ask for an accredited laboratory analysis covering aflatoxin, sulphur dioxide, moisture and pesticide residues, carrying the same batch number printed on the carton. We also ask for a health certificate and a certificate of origin, and for anyone importing into Saudi Arabia the Saudi Food and Drug Authority requirements for the item are reviewed before booking. Labelling follows GSO 9 and shelf-life periods follow GSO 150 — and remaining shelf life is counted from arrival, not from loading.