Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Volume LX
Written by Kenan KAYNAŞ
Turkey is the unique country that has land in both Europe and Asia. Turkey has approximately 75 000 000 population and is an agricultural country. In this context Turkey has great fruit and vegetable production potential. Turkey is one of the biggest producers of apples, pears, quinces, peaches and apricots, citrus (as fruit species) and tomatoes, peppers, melons, watermelons (as vegetable species). However, the amount of cold stores and packinghouses is deficient for its potential. Moreover the export rate is 5-10% of production. In addition the rate of postharvest losses of these crops is approximately 35-40%. On the other hand, the usage of controlled atmosphere ( CA) stores and new postharvest technologies debouched rapidly. As a result increasing the amount of CA stores and modern packinghouses, arranging the errors in cold chain and improving the reproducing conditions will make Turkey an important fresh perishable exporter. Besides, the potential and capacity of production will be validated by minimizing the postharvest losses. On the other hand, cave storage will be improved by some modifications such as temperature, humidity and air circulation conditions. Their numbers, and hence capacities are steadily increasing. Eventually, the cave stores have impressions as being the predominating stores for citrus, potatoes and onions.
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