Turkey: Watermelons most highly sold items during Ramadan

Turkish Retailers Federation (TPF) Chairman Mustafa Altunbilekle states that during Ramadan sales increased as much as 35%, varying by region, in comparison with the previous month, as reported by corumhaber.net. Sales of meat were high in Asia Minor especially, and across Turkey in general high sales were seen in watermelons, cheese, desserts, soft drinks, tea, sunflower oil and potatoes.

According to the TPF’s information gathered from 17 regions, Ramadan sales in local stores were up 20% compared to the year before. Altunbilekle called the month abundant, and attributed some of the success to Ramadan vouchers and food packages. He also stated that fruit and vegetable sales were lively; watermelon was the bestseller followed by tomatoes, melons and potatoes. Meanwhile Nielsen’s global research released Turkey’s supermarket inflation figures for June 2015, inflation was measured as 8.9% on fast-moving consumer goods compared to the same period of the previous year, not including tobacco or alcoholic beverages.