A grower in Ceyhan, a town located in Adana, in southern Turkey, is growing cherries for export.
Grower Mehmet Ali Bilici: “The cherry production in this region is very promising. Currently we are selling our cherries both to local markets and abroad. In Ceyhan, there is a lot of agricultural production but there are not a lot high value added products grown here. So we have started cherry production in an area of 1 million square feet and we are growing very good quality products here. There are only a few areas in Turkey where cherries are grown and hopefully we will set an example in our area. We are also starting a trial production with apricot, plum and peach. We had the same period with cherry where we experimented for 1 year with different varieties. Right now the price of cherry is around 4 USD per kg which is quite high. Hopefully this will encourage other growers in the area who can earn a lot money through cherry production.
This area is specifically good to grow drupe fruits. We can contribute a lot to the local economy if we shift the agricultural production in this area to these types of fruits.”
Source: Hurriyet
