Aronia saplings, which were first distributed to producers in 2020 within the scope of the "Extension of Aronia Production Project" implemented in cooperation with Ordu Metropolitan Municipality and Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry in order to diversify agricultural economic income sources, bore fruit.
Between 2020 and 2022, the Metropolitan Municipality provided a total of 7 thousand 225 saplings to 34 producers in Altınordu, Fatsa, Gölköy, Gürgentepe, Kumru, Mesudiye, Çarşamba, Ulubey and Ünye districts. A 24 decare aronia garden was created.
ARONIA WAS PURCHASED FROM PRODUCERS BY THE METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY
This year, the fruits harvested by the producers were purchased by the Metropolitan Municipality and marketing support was given to the producers. Ethem Gözkonan, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Livestock Services, said, “Producers need to be supported in the promotion and marketing of products that have newly entered the cultivation and consumption culture of our city. "As the Department of Agriculture and Livestock Services, we show that we support our producers in the journey of the product from field to table by purchasing the products of our producers for the products we support with seeds and saplings," he said.
MARKETING SUPPORT TO BREEDERS
Stating that they also provide marketing support to growers, Gözkonan said, “Our Metropolitan Municipality subsidiary ORTAR A.Ş. We received the aronia fruits harvested by our producers by communicating between our women's cooperatives and women's cooperatives. We dried the aronia we bought as fresh fruit from our producers in the drying facility of the women's cooperative and made them ready for sale. In this way, we will both buy our producers' products at a price above the market and ensure that they are marketed with high added value. "We will continue to support our manufacturers by doing similar work on other products," he said.
GROWERS ACHIEVED HIGH INCOME
Aronia producer Ahmet Bayar, who lives in Yeşiltepe neighborhood of Fatsa district, said, “We started aronia cultivation with the sapling support of Ordu Metropolitan Municipality. We had our first harvest this year. We are very pleased with our products. We gave the majority of the fruits we harvested to the Metropolitan Municipality and sold a small portion of them in our immediate surroundings. I think that aronia will be a fruit that we will talk about frequently in our city in the future, just like kiwi. During this process, Metropolitan Municipality Department of Agriculture and Livestock Services personnel regularly came to visit us and guided us. Our Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Dr., who gave us both sapling and product purchase support. "We thank Mehmet Hilmi Güler," he said.
IT IS ALSO USED IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Aronia, which is a source of vitamin C and antioxidants and is sold at high prices, prevents blood clotting by balancing the cholesterol level in the blood, and is known to have curative properties against cancer. In addition to being consumed as a fresh fruit, aronia is also used as a raw material in fruit juice, cake, ice cream, chocolate, spices, jam, tea, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.
