The market season for mandarins will be extended.
The-4-days Agricultural Festival in Seferihisar started with the opening of the new cold storage facility, which will enable the mandarin producers to extend the shelf-life of their products and supply the market for a longer period of time.
Since 2010, Seferihisar municipality used to initiate agricultural policies and solutions against the complications at the production and consumer level caused by the national agricultural policies in force. The municipality started to display the best examples for its agricultural strategy called ‘Alternative Farming is Possible’ at the Agricultural Festival. At the first day of the event, the much-needed cold storage facility has been opened.
The cold storage facility has 700 sqm closed area and 1573 m3 cold storage unit with 4 rooms. It was primarily established for the use of the mandarin producers, but the fishermen and other fruit and vegetable growers can also benefit from the unit. This project was supported by Seferihisar municipality, owned by Doğanbey Cooperative and 50% of the project cost was granted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Tourism.
Doğanbey Cooperative Chairman Tuncay Topuz along with Seferihisar Mayor Tunç Soyer made speeches before the opening of the facility. Mayor Soyer stated that the market price of the mandarins didn’t change in the last 20 years. In order to protect the producers and reach better market prices after the high reason, they opted for extend the shelf-life of the mandarins. The municipality also works on developing new projects to create value-added products out of mandarins. The cold storage will be open all year and also be used to preserve local products except mandarins.
Lavender Photos Exhibition Opened
At the first day of the festival the lavender photos exhibition opened in Çağan Irmak Hall. The photos taken by artists Petek Çakaloz, Aysun Ormanlı, Muhsin Ağaya, Niyazi Tunçel and Engin Yavuz at the lavender field run by Seferihisar municipality can be seen for four days.
Best Food and Best Souvenir with Mandarin Competitions Made
After the opening the cooking competition took place. Best food and dessert with mandarins were selected with the collaboration of Izmir Association of Professional Cooks. Also, best souvenir design with mandarins were selected as the academics of Izmir Economy University Beautiful Arts and Design Faculty the Jury. The winners will be presented their awards on Sunday 18th November during the 19th Mandarin Festival.
The Panel on ‘Alternative Farming is Possible’
The last event of the day was the panel discussion at Çağan Irmak Hall with the speakers Toros University Urban Planning Department Head Prof.Dr. Ahmet Özer and Istanbul Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Head Ahmet Atalık.
Olive Oil Auction Will Be Tomorrow
The olive oil auction will be made tomorrow, on Friday, 16th November, where the olive oil squeezed from the 500-year-old olive trees will be sold in Teos ancient city. At last year’s auction a half-liter bottle olive oil was sold for 22.500 TL to become world’s most expensive oil.