Dieters new favourite fruit creates black market

Fruit juice producers have entered a pomegranate race, trying to get their hands on the fruit for juicing. The number of companies making pomegranate juice has gone from 4 to 50 in the last four months, and sales have reached $1.5 million. As a result of its popularity with dieters, the pomegranate has now joined the list of the most expensive fruit, at 5 YTL. Pomegranates for squeezing have started to be sold on the black market. The reason for this is its appearance on diet lists as a cure-all miracle fruit juice, where it is deemed useful against cellulite, high cholesterol, and even hyper tension and Alzheimer’s disease.

Two flavours

Fruit juice companies use two different methods in the production of the fruit juice, which are the determining factors in the taste of the fruit juice produced. Some companies remove the skin as well as the inner membrane surrounding each little juice ball, where others prefer to keep the skins and membrane in order to benefit from its antioxidant qualities. This method however, causes the juice to taste somewhat bitter in comparison to the skin-free juice – 70%of pomegranate juice consumption is in Istanbul, followed by Antalya. Ankara and Izmir are also among the highest consumers of the bitter-sweet juice.
50 of the 116 fruit juice companies now include pomegranate juice in their range of fruit juices.