Turkey : Blueberries to replace Hazelnut crops?

To eradicate illegal hazelnut production, the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture will fund those hazelnut farmers who will switch to other cultivation options such as cut flowers and blueberries.

This initiative, in accordance with the recent “hazelnut strategy”, was revealed on August 20. The government expects to eradicate unlicensed hazelnut production within the next three years.

In Turkey, the world’s top hazelnut producer, hazelnut farmers must register for production licenses, Turkish web magazine TodaysZaman reports: unauthorized hazelnut farms in the Country have spread out over a total of 236 million square meters.

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s calculations, a farmer will make a net TL 25,600 profit per 1,000 square meter if he switches to growing cut flowers – this number is TL 249 for hazelnut production.

Also, a farmer will earn 24 times the money he earns from hazelnuts per square meter should he switch to greenhouse tomato production, while blueberries would provide 16 times the earnings a farmer makes from hazelnut crops per square meter.

Source : Greenmed