Retired professor Prof. Dr. Aykut Aysin with his wife are growing strawberries in his greenhouse. The greenhouse is located in the Incirliova district of Aydin, is 2.2-hectares in size of which 1.5 hectares is used in hydroponic production.
The grower is currently harvesting around 140 tons of strawberry which are sold in the domestic market. Now he has aspirations to start exporting his product.
The greenhouse was built by the couple 2 years ago. "The quality of the products is above the market standards", Aykut says, explaining that he receives around 2 – 2.5 USD per kg for his strawberries.
"For now we only harvest from our hydroponic production, as we have yet to start harvesting from the traditional farm."
Grower Aykut continues: “The investment costs for hydroponic strawberry production was quite high but we chose this product because there is a high demand for good quality strawberries in Turkey. If you can grow high-quality strawberries in Turkey, you have healthy profit margins."
"It is also a must to have automation equipment in your hydroponic greenhouse. In total, we have invested around 400,000 USD into our greenhouses so far. Of course, we have used low-interest state bank loans for our investments. We also employ mostly women in our greenhouses thereby creating jobs for women in the area.”
Source: Haberler