THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
Young entrepreneurs energised the cherry harvest festival…
The Manisa-Izmir line, which produces the first cherries of the Northern Hemisphere, is experiencing cherry harvest enthusiasm. With more than 60 thousand tonnes of cherries, Izmir’s Kemalpaşa district is one of the most important cherry production centres in Türkiye and the Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters’ Association organised the “Cherry Harvest Festival”.
The Cherry Harvest Festival was attended by young food and agricultural engineering graduates or students who completed the ‘Third Generation Agricultural Entrepreneurship Training Programme’ of the Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters’ Association. Agricultural volunteers energised the cherry harvest festival with their youth.
Stating that Türkiye is the world leader with an annual cherry harvest of 736 thousand tonnes, Hayrettin Uçak, Vice Chairman of the Aegean Exporters‘ Associations and President of the Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters’ Association, said that they are targeting 300 million dollars in foreign currency from cherry exports in 2024.
260 thousand tonnes of cherries are produced in the Aegean Region…
Wishing cherry producers a prosperous season, Uçak said, “We are among the top four countries in the world in cherry exports. In the Aegean Region, we produce 260 thousand tonnes of cherries annually in İzmir, Manisa, Afyon, Denizli and Aydın provinces. In 2023, the 100th year of our Republic, we exported 83 thousand tonnes of cherries for 215 million dollars. Our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry continues its contacts in order to export our cherries to markets such as China and India. If there is an agreement with the relevant countries, we will have made a very important progress in cherries.”
The leader of cherry exports is Germany…
Sharing the information that Türkiye exported 215 million dollars of cherries in 2023, Uçak continued his words as follows; “Germany was at the top with a demand of 95, 5 million dollars of Turkish cherries. The Russian Federation, Türkiye’s leading market in fresh fruit and vegetable exports, became the top partner with a demand of 43, 8 million dollars of Turkish cherries in 2023. Austria ranked third in cherry exports with a demand of 14.2 million dollars. While Türkiye exported cherries to 55 countries in 2023, other countries in the top 10 were Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Iraq, Poland, Bulgaria and the UK. With the ‘We Know the Pesticides We Use Project’ and the ‘Mediterranean Fruit Fly Free Cherry Production Project’, we strive for Türkiye to produce and export quality cherries without residues.”
