THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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August 2026…
Beekeepers in Türkiye’s Central Anatolian province of Aksaray are exporting approximately 500 tonnes of honey, produced from hives set up in areas with sunflower fields, to Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan. Refik İçli, Chairman of the Aksaray Beekeepers’ Association, said, “It is a golden-coloured, wonderfully fragrant and high-quality honey. It is one of the varieties sold specifically to Japan. Traders come to us saying, ‘We’re going to send this to Japan’.”
Aksaray, with a sunflower production of 55,732 tonnes across an area of 160,290 hectares, is set to rank third in the country in 2025, whilst beekeepers, with 32,000 hives, are contributing to the national economy by exporting the approximately 500 tonnes of honey they produce to Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan.
Refik İçli, Chairman of the Aksaray Beekeepers’ Association, stated that the sunflowers grown in the city are used not only for snack and oil production but also for honey production.
“The honey produced from sunflowers in our region is exported primarily to European countries and Japan. Türkiye exports approximately 20–25,000 tonnes of honey. Of this, 3–4,000 tonnes is sunflower honey; 17–18,000 tonnes is pine honey and the remainder is highland honey. Sunflower honey is exported from Aksaray province. The Yenikent, Yeşilova and Eskil regions are as large as a province. Itinerant beekeepers from outside the area travel there with around 25,000 hives, whilst our local beekeepers from Aksaray take 7,000–8,000 hives. This honey is purchased in bulk by traders. Following testing and analysis, it is exported,” he added…
