Sourced 2026-27 outlook for Turkish mandarin: TÜİK and USDA FAS forecasts, the September-April variety calendar, last season's exports and shipping specs.
Every autumn buyers ask the same three questions about Turkish mandarin: which varieties ship when, how large is the crop, and where is export demand heading? This update brings together the sourced figures available as of early September 2026 for the 2026-27 season, and sets them against the variety calendar our grower partners in Mersin, Adana, Hatay, Antalya and İzmir work to.
Where the 2026-27 crop stands
- TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), first estimate, May 2026: about 3.08 million tonnes for 2026 against about 2.10 million tonnes in 2025, up 46.3 percent.
- USDA FAS (the US Department of Agriculture's foreign-market service), 2025/26 season: last season's crop about 2.19 million tonnes (up 10 percent), exports about 1 million tonnes (up about 60 percent). No 2026/27 figure has been published yet.
The two figures are not directly comparable: TÜİK counts the crop by calendar year (January to December) and revises it twice before the final figure; USDA FAS counts by marketing year, the season from one harvest to the next. The direction, however, is the same: a large crop is on the trees. The February 2025 frost that cut lemon and orange output in Adana, Mersin and Hatay largely spared early mandarin types such as Okitsu, Miho Wase and Primasol, as both the USDA FAS 2025/26 report and the Yüreğir Chamber of Agriculture noted, and we have not seen comparable frost damage reported for the 2026 bloom.
Variety calendar: September to April
Turkey's strength in mandarin is not one variety but a chain of them. On the mandarin product page we list twelve varieties; grouped by timing they cover roughly seven months:
- Very early (September-October): Miho Wase opens the season, followed by Okitsu and then Primasol, a Miho Wase and Carvalhais cross that ripens a few days after Okitsu.
- Early to mid (October-December): Satsuma proper, Dobashi Beni with its deep orange-red peel, Clementine, Fremont and Robinson. In the 2025 season the Aegean Exporters' Associations announced a Satsuma harvest date of 14 October and an export date of 17 October, and FreshFruitPortal reported in October 2025 that Primasol and Dobashi Beni were already shipping from Mersin and İskenderun by mid-month, with Satsuma following.
- Mid to late (December-February): Nova and Minneola bridge the winter months.
- Late (February-April): W.Murcott and its seedless mutation Tango close the season and carry Turkish mandarin into spring programmes.
Exact start dates for 2026 are set each autumn by regional harvest commissions once ripeness testing is complete, so the dates above are indicative until the 2026 announcements. See our Satsuma mandarin guide for the variety background and the season calendar for the month-by-month picture across all our products.
How last season exported
- January-November 2025 (EİB, the Aegean Exporters' Associations): 690,014 tonnes worth 615 million US dollars, up 18 percent in volume and 61 percent in value on the same months of 2024, already above the full-year record of 575 million dollars set in 2023. Russia took 356,341 tonnes; Iraq and Ukraine followed.
- USDA FAS's Citrus: World Markets and Trade circular of January 2026 attributed most of the forecast rise in global mandarin exports to Turkey, projecting Turkish shipments up 392,000 tonnes to 1.0 million tonnes and Russian imports at a record 1.1 million tonnes.
- First half of 2026, Mediterranean region (AKİB, the Mediterranean Exporters' Associations): mandarin was the region's largest export product at 357.6 million dollars, up 86 percent.
- First half of 2026, all of Turkey: citrus exports of 807,114 tonnes and 911 million dollars, of which mandarin 532 million. Iraq was the largest citrus market (357 million dollars), then Russia (236 million) and Ukraine (47 million).
Two things stand out for a buyer planning 2026-27: demand is spreading, with Iraq's share up sharply and Poland and Romania now among the top five destinations; and most of last season's growth came from early Satsuma types, which USDA FAS describes as the most widely produced variety in Turkey, a large share of which is exported.
What this means for programmes and shipments
A large early crop rewards buyers who fix their variety sequence and caliber requirements before harvest. Our export preparation follows the same routine every season:
- Grading: Extra, Class I and Class II under the international citrus marketing standard, sized by caliber code; the code runs from 1-XXX for the largest fruit (78 mm and above) to 10 for the smallest (35-42 mm).
- Packaging: 5 kg, 10 kg and 15 kg cartons; the standard 40x30x18 cm carton holds 10 kg net and stacks 100 boxes on a 100x120 cm pallet.
- Cold chain: 5-8°C in storage and transit, managed under our ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018 systems.
- Documentation: phytosanitary certificate, grading class and caliber on the packing list, and destination-specific paperwork, as described on our export page.
If you are building a mandarin programme for October through April, send us your target varieties, calibers, packaging and weekly volumes through the contact page; we typically reply to quote requests within one business day.
Sources: TÜİK 2026 Plant Production First Estimate (May 2026) via Tarım Dünyası (June 2026); USDA FAS Citrus Annual for Türkiye 2025/26 via Citrus Industry Magazine (April 2026) and Fructidor (January 2026); USDA FAS Citrus: World Markets and Trade (January 2026); EİB figures via CNN Türk (December 2025) and EİB harvest-date announcement (October 2025); AKİB first-half 2026 figures via Mersin Portal (July 2026) and Shafaq News (August 2026); FreshFruitPortal (October 2025); Milli Gazete with the Yüreğir Chamber of Agriculture (October 2025).
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Turkish mandarin season start in 2026?
Very early Satsuma types such as Miho Wase and Okitsu are normally picked from late September into October in Mersin, Adana and Hatay. In 2025 the Aegean exporters' associations set the Satsuma harvest date at 14 October and the export date at 17 October; the 2026 dates will be announced by the regional harvest commissions in the autumn.
How large is the 2026-27 Turkish mandarin crop expected to be?
TÜİK's first estimate for 2026 (May 2026) puts mandarin production 46.3 percent above 2025, at roughly 3.08 million tonnes as reported by Tarım Dünyası. USDA FAS forecast the previous 2025/26 crop at about 2.19 million tonnes and had not published a 2026/27 figure as of early September 2026, so the two series should not be compared directly.
Which markets bought Turkish mandarin last season?
According to EİB figures reported by CNN Türk, Russia was the largest buyer in January-November 2025 with 356,341 tonnes, followed by Iraq and Ukraine. In the first half of 2026, Akdeniz exporters' data cited by Shafaq News show Iraq as the largest Turkish citrus market, ahead of Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Romania.
