In the Gazipasa district in Antalya, close to 10,000 acres of open land and 11,000 acres of greenhouse are occupied with banana production. Bananas are grown year round in greenhouses; Hayrettin Akgul, from the Ari Banana Ripening Warehouse, explains that those successfully growing bananas started to harvest them from the greenhouses a week ago. According to Akgul, “We take the green bananas from the greenhouses, after 5 days in the refrigeration warehouse, we send them to provinces such as Antalya, Istanbul, and Afyon. Last year the price of a kilo of green bananas increased from �0.63 - �1.25. So far this year the price is between �0.63-�0.78.”
Production increased
Gazipasa’s Agricultural Chamber Chaiman Yusuf Celik states that any kind of fruit or vegetable can be cultivated in Gazipasa’s climate, “Gazipasa is not the only district involved in banana growing, in the neighbouring districts of Anamur and Alanya many banana producers have established greenhouses. Banana production increases every year, on open land as well as in greenhouses. Last year banana prices increased to �1.41, which pleased our producers. Now we are buying a kilo of green bananas for �0.63-�0.78. We expect this price to increase slightly in the coming days. We expect this year’s banana yield to exceed 40,000 tons.”
High yield
Muzkent (Banana town) district authority and banana producer Suleyman Yilmaz, explains that this year’s yield is very good thanks to the cool weather. Bananas are produced on close to 2,000 acres in Muzkent, “For several years banana producers were not making much money, but last year the price increased to �1.25 and finally they saw some profits. In Muzkent producers are growing bananas in places that would be too dangerous for people to even walk through. The input price of bananas is very high. So that producers do not see losses, the price of green bananas per kilo needs to be at least �0.94. The biggest problem for banana producers in Gazipasa is irrigation. In our district producers are having to bring water from 2 kilometres away. Growers pay most of their earnings to their electricity bills. In order to solve this problem the Gokceler dam needs to be opened as soon as possible,” he concluded.
