Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Turkey has experienced many disasters in the last week, “But I believe that we will face all these disasters with strength, with our will to fight, with our fortitude born of unity and solidarity. By trusting each other, taking strength from each other, by the grace of Allah, we will put these troubles behind us.”

“There are two treasures here worth gold: hazelnuts and tourism,” Hisarciklıoğlu said, “‎If we appreciate it, it will make us and future generations rich.‎ But we need to focus not only on quantity, but on quality. Just like tea, Hazelnut is a strategic product for both our people in the region and our country. Without imported input, we make $2-3 billion every year, perhaps our most domestic and national asset. It keeps our people here and protects the soil from destruction and erosion with its roots. In other words, hazelnuts are not just nuts.”

Emphasizing that they have to take care of hazelnuts and hazelnut gardens, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We have to dry it well, pack it up correctly and bring it to market in a quality way. By switching to machine farming, we need to reduce the cost and increase production. We must renovate the aging gardens, our trees that have fallen from yield, with the support of the state. As we increase the yield, our harvest and our earnings will be much more abundant.”

In this way, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, export revenue can double to 4-5 billion.

Trabzon Commodity Exchange has implemented various projects to increase the yield in hazelnuts, established sample gardens, distributed seedlings to the producer, implementing the Project to Increase Yield and Quality in Hazelnut, implemented an innovation such as Hazelnut Bread to add this product to the most consumed bread and brought all the stakeholders of the sector together here on the occasion of World Hazelnut Week.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they have to add value to the hazelnut, and that they have generated $2 billion in revenue, but when processed into chocolate abroad, it reaches $10 billion. Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed that it is very important to produce better quality hazelnuts and to convert and sell hazelnuts into products in order to export more.