With its growing domestic production Turkey could soon stop its banana imports

In Turkey, as in many countries, the demand for bananas is increasing, but the volume of imports is decreasing thanks to increasing national production.


Turkey has been producing bananas since the first half of the 20th century, even though the country is located outside the tropical and subtropical climatic zones. Bananas are grown along the Mediterranean coast in several regions (Antalya, Mersin, Adana, Hatay). Crops were exclusively field crops until the 1990s. After this date crops under protection were introduced and now the majority of bananas are grown in greenhouses and plastic tunnels.


The areas dedicated to growing bananas increased from 1309 hectares in 1991 to 6225 hectares in 2016 and the production of 35 000 tonnes to 305 926 tonnes. This growing production led to a significant decrease in imports, which fell by more than 70,000 tons.


Professionals predict that if the sector continues to develop at this rate, in 5 years Turkey will stop importing bananas.

source : promusa.org, aa.com.tr