A woman entrepreneur in Karaman, located in central Turkey, began to grow watermelons a few years ago and started to export them to Dubai last year. The grower has a production area of 1.5 million square feet and expects around 1,500 tons of watermelon this season.
Last year she managed to export 1 million USD worth of watermelons to Dubai and this year she is aiming to surpass this number. The sales price in local markets has been disappointing for some other local growers, however the export price for this particular grower’s watermelons vary between 1 to 1.2 USD per kg.
On the other hand, the high temperatures caused a spike in consumption in a local market in Diyarbakir, a city located in southeastern Turkey and known for its high temperatures.
Diyarbakir has been also one of the top-3 watermelon growing regions in Turkey but this year it has moved to 4th spot. Last year around 4 million tons of watermelons were grown in Turkey in an area of 9 billion square feet. Adana was responsible for 830,000 tons, followed by Antalya with 487,000 tons, Izmir with 196,000 tons and Diyarbakir with 163,000 tons. Other important watermelon production cities are Bursa, Mersin, Samsun and Sanliurfa.
Source: Haberturk
