Turkey
Turkey is for Enza Zaden one of the most challenging export markets. Enza Zaden commercial activities in Turkey began in 1983. Following years many developments has been done on variety and organizational level. Nowadays we are successful in indeterminate tomatoes, determinate tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, squash and Turkish melon types. All Enza Zaden products are sold via our distributor AG-TOHUM in Antalya with who we are in close commercial and technical cooperation.
Over the last years Turkey’s economy has shown rapid development. In the last 30 years, the planted area of vegetables showed a 70% increase. Of all vegetables, the majority is produced in open field.
The Aegean is a leading region regarding the open field production, followed by Mediterranean and Marmara (north-west part) regions for protected crops.
With the covered production, the Mediterranean is the leading region of which Antalya, Adana and Mersin are the most important provinces. Tomato takes the lead both in open field and covered area production. The other important products are: cucumbers, melon, eggplant, squash, green peppers and watermelons. The share of these products in covered area production is close to 99%. In all regions AG Tohum is commercially and technically represented.
To improve characteristics like yield, quality and disease resistance of internationally known vegetable species suitable for the Turkish market and the Middle East, in 1995 Enza Zaden intensified its breeding activities in Turkey by launching specific breeding programmes for Turkey focusing on tomato, mini cucumber and pepper, plus three vegetable species that were at the time new to Enza: melon, squash and eggplant.
A new research station with a modern laboratory in Serik (on the East side of Antalya) is established in 2001. Totally 4ha modern heated greenhouses and 16 ha open field is used for the breeding activities. We strongly believe in the strategic importance of executing breeding activities in the centre of big regions with a growing potential for horticulture activities. Therefore, in 2008 another 1 ha. is constructed to intensify our breeding activities in Turkey.
The most successful varieties of Enza Zaden in the Turkish market are nowadays:
- Melis/Sarafin (autumn tomato)
- Hanedan (winter tomato)
- Sadeen/Fora922/Simena (determinate tomato)
- Melen (spring/autumn mini-cucumber)
- Asef (summer mini cucumber)
- Desna/ Kundu (dolma pepper)
- Ali Bey/Davut Bey/Ishak Bey (Turkish type melon)
- Ardendo (squash)
- Velvet/Kasam/Bitez (lettuce)