Nuts

Hazelnuts

Graded by kernel diameter in millimetres, and the step from one band to the next is a real difference in price and in how the finished product looks. The forms in trade are natural with the skin on, blanched by heat treatment, roasted, diced to various cuts, milled and paste. Moisture has to stay low — hazelnuts take up moisture quickly, lose their bite and turn rancid — and we ask for it to be measured at packing, not at harvest. The crop is harvested once a year in late summer, which means the price is read against the season: anyone quoting you a flat price for a full year is either selling old stock or will withdraw at execution.

Antep pistachios

The Gaziantep pistachio is its own product: a smaller kernel, a deeper green, a denser flavour, and a higher price than the American and Iranian types. It is graded by count per ounce — fewer means larger — and sold in shell or as kernels. The single item most worth fixing in the purchase order is the percentage of closed, unsplit nuts, because it is the one buyers usually absorb in silence and the one that most reduces the real value of the consignment. The Turkish export surplus is limited, since the domestic market takes most of the crop, so anyone promising large volumes at a low price deserves a question about origin.

Walnuts and almonds

Walnuts trade as shelled kernels graded by shape and colour: light halves carry the highest value, then quarters, then pieces, and the darker the colour the lower the price. Chandler is the most widely planted variety in Türkiye. Almonds are largely not a Turkish export crop at the scale importers imagine; local varieties such as the Datça almond are small in volume and high in price. So we tell you in the offer: this is Turkish origin, and this is re-export from elsewhere. The difference shows up in the certificate of origin and in customs treatment at arrival, not in how the kernel looks.

Quality and packing

Nuts are a category where you measure risk rather than appearance. For each batch we ask for an accredited aflatoxin analysis, a moisture reading, a check that the goods are free of live infestation, and a pass through a metal detector. Common packing is 10, 12.5 and 25 kg bags or cartons with a food-grade liner; vacuum packing genuinely extends life and earns its price premium on hot destinations. Storage before shipment has to be cool and dry — hazelnuts and almonds go rancid with heat and light, and rancidity does not show at delivery. It shows weeks later, in your customer's warehouse.