The city of Mugla, located in southwestern Turkey, is one the most important areas for citrus production. However the production volume has decreased by almost 50% from 65,000 tons to 35,000 tons annually. The Ortaca district Chamber of Commerce Chairman said, “Mugla is the biggest growing region in Turkey for citrus fruits, however because of the problems the growers have had, the production volume has gone down dramatically.
As the volume went down, the prices of the products increased consequently. There were some payment problems in the past where the growers could not receive payment from the wholesalers and other middlemen. That’s why they set up facilities to do their own packaging and sales. This way the payment problem is solved and we have been selling products both to local market and to abroad.
There are a lot costs added to the cost of the lemon after it leaves the grower’s field. Packaging, labor, transport and various other costs are added thus the price of the lemon increases fivefold from grower to the retail. There are also a lot of middlemen in between who add their own margins and drive up the price even more. The municipalities should allocate a place for lemon growers in fruit and vegetable wholesale markets which will eliminate the intermediaries and keep the end prices at a more reasonable level for consumers.
So far we have not experienced any issues in exports. We have been mainly exporting to Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Scandinavian countries, Portugal and Netherlands. The quality of our products is very high and we export around 75% of our production.”
Source: TRT Haber