Ali Erikçi, who lives in Türkiye’s central Anatolian province of Karaman, exports to 21 countries in the apple packaging and storage facility he established with 50 percent grant support from the Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution (TKDK).

Erikçi, 35, who turned to export in apple growing, which he learnt from his father, received grant support from the institution with the project he submitted to the TKDK Karaman Provincial Coordinatorship in 2019.
Erikçi, who built a modern facility with apple grading, packaging and storage sections in a closed area of approximately 4,500 square metres, started exporting to various countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya.
Erikçi, who installed solar panels on the roof of the enterprise with his own means, met the entire energy needs of the facility in this way and achieved significant savings.
‘We export an agricultural product that is one hundred percent domestic production to 21 countries’
Erikçi said that apples are separated according to their size and quality with modern devices in the facility, then packaged and stored and exported.

Explaining that they process about 20 thousand tonnes of apples a year in the facility, 15 thousand tonnes of which are exported, Erikçi said:
“Our need for establishment emerged in 2019. We brought a technology that separates apples from abroad according to their quality, size, colour and diameter to our facility, which we established with the support of ARDSI. Thanks to this technology, we export an agricultural product that is 100 percent domestic production to 21 countries with the standard product quality we have achieved. We produce with approximately 2 million apple trees. In addition, we send 80 percent of the products we supply from farmers to export.”
Erikçi also stated that they also contributed to employment with the facility they established and that 100 people, 80 of whom are women, work in the enterprise…