From one desk to a family company

46 years, one address

İsmail Erten began commission trading at the Antalya Wholesale Market in 1980. Back then the work was simply matching the grower who arrived before dawn with the right buyer at the right price. That work is still at the centre of what we do.

Over time we learned the rest of the chain. We built greenhouses in Antalya, planted orchards in Korkuteli and opened our own packing facility. We became a direct supplier to national retail chains and began shipping abroad.

Today farming, trading, packing, export and our crop protection dealership all run under one roof. The one thing that has not changed is the principle we started with: keep your word.

A wholesale market keeps its own hours. Produce arrives at night, is graded before morning and finds its buyer before daylight. We have lived by that clock for 46 years: for us the working day starts not at nine, but in the hours when the city is asleep.

At a wholesale market, standing is not earned with a signboard. It is earned by staying in the same place for years.

Staying at the same stand has a price and a reward. The price is turning down every venture that promises a quick return. The reward is this: some of the growers who send us produce today have been with us since their fathers' time. They do not hesitate when they consign, and we do not dress up the price when we report it.

We started farming ourselves not to grow, but to be able to give our word. To tell a buyer "this size, this quality, this date", you have to know not only the moment the produce is sold but the moment it is planted. What we grow in our Antalya greenhouses and Korkuteli orchards is graded and packed at our own facility, and the growing area behind every batch is on record.

Erten Tarım is a family company. The person who answers the phone is the person who makes the decision, so there is no extra step between the promise given and the work done.