Local Turkiye

Almond harvest started in Cesme and Izmir


Almond harvest started in Izmir and Cesme, two most important almond production centres of the Aegean Region. Producers have started to plant almond saplings in recent years with the support and advice of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. One of these almond farms is located in Karakoy District of Cesme and rented to an almond producer by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The green almond harvest started in April and approximately 40 tons of green almond were put on the market from this garden; the dry almond harvest started as of September. The harvest starts early in the morning and continues until the evening. Almonds are dropped from the trees and collected in the sacks. Later, the almonds are laid in the sun for drying process for about a week and sent to the factories to be packaged.

‘’One of the best varieties to adapt to this region is almond.’’

Ahmet Kececi, the District Director of Agriculture stated that Cesme has a great potential for agriculture and emphasized that the trees in the mentioned garden are planted in 2009, He said:

‘’ The garden is one of the top 5 biggest farms in Turkey and the biggest in Aegean Region; there are nearly 45 thousand trees in this garden. These almonds are very important for our country; unfortunately our almond production is narrow and we have to import. We need more almond gardens. The farm provides nearly 150 tons of products; these are 40 tons of green almond and 110 tons of dried almond.

   We use advanced agricultural techniques in the garden. The garden is controlled by the Ministry and supervised by provincial directorates. The terrain has difficult conditions and one of the best varieties to adapt to this region is almond. Hopefully, there will be more almond farms in Turkey in order to meet the demand. ‘’

‘’Domestic market is longing for domestic almonds.’’

Ahmet Demiraslan, the manager of Orba Organic Agriculture Products Corporation stated that they have been trying to produce almond in an area of around 1100 decares for 10 years. Demiraslan said:

‘’ We produce in a formerly forested land; we rented the land from the Ministry and we will make almond production. We are the first Corporation to attempt such big production and we have been harvesting for nearly 3 years. We make green almond harvest in April every year and almond harvest starts at the end of August and it continues for 3 weeks. We put all the production on the domestic market because domestic almond is demanded much more.’’

Demiraslan emphasized that green almond prices range between 9-13 liras during the harvest time and dried almond prices are between 55-67 liras. He said:

‘’ We are in domestic market with our own brand; the market is longing for domestic almonds; all our products are sold no matter how much we produce. Almonds and walnuts will be logical investments for our farmers because we import them.’’

source: AA / translated by Bazaar Team

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