In the past, people used to think of only flowers and plants when somebody mentioned greenhouse production but since then greenhouse production has developed by leaps and bounds and right now flowers and plants only make for 3.5 % of the greenhouse production in Turkey. 95 % of the greenhouses in Turkey are used for vegetable production whereas the remaining 1.5 % is used for fruit production.
Greenhouse production was used to have year-round production and support the open field summer production in winter times through growing products in greenhouses. But now greenhouses are used for production throughout the whole.
Around 8 million tons of fruits and vegetables are grown in greenhouses annually where 45 % of the tomatoes, 60 % of cucumbers and 25 % of green peppers grown in Turkey are coming from these greenhouses.
Greenhouses cover approximately 7 billion square feet of land in Turkey. From the vegetable production, tomatoes make up 55 % of it whereas cucumbers make up 15 % of it. Additionally 10 % of the vegetable production is green peppers and 5 % of it is eggplants. Looking at the fruit production in greenhouses, bananas make up about 50 % of the production followed by strawberries with 30 % of the production. Additionally fruits such as grapes, plums, apricots and peaches are among the fruits which are grown in Turkey.
80 % of the greenhouse production in Turkey comes from Antalya, Mersin and Adana. Greenhouse production gives the opportunity of controlled production for growers and gives certain advantages in exporting products by eliminating pesticide problems.
Around 40 % of the greenhouse production in Turkey comes from Antalya, followed by 25 % from Mersin and 15 % from Adana. About 12 % of the greenhouses are glass greenhouses whereas 48 % are plastic covered greenhouses.
Source: Miiliyet