Headline: Alanya Emerges as Türkiye’s Tropical Fruit Hub

Once known for greenhouse vegetables and temperate climate fruits like apples, pears, cherries, and nectarines, Antalya’s Alanya district is now transforming into Türkiye’s tropical fruit capital.

Since 2010, driven by rising labor and input costs, farmers in the district have shifted from traditional crops to tropical fruits — especially bananas and avocados.

Today, Alanya cultivates around 40 varieties of tropical fruit, and the district supplies roughly 70 % of the country’s avocados.

Ahead of the Tropical Fruit Festival, scheduled for October 10-12, Alanya Municipality is ramping up efforts to promote the rapidly growing tropical agriculture sector.

According to Tahir Göktepe, chairman of Alanya Chamber of Agriculture, about 11,000 of the district’s 27,000 farmers are now engaged in tropical fruit cultivation.

Besides bananas and avocados, production is expanding into mango, dragon fruit, passion fruit, papaya and star fruit. Mango plantations cover roughly 2,000 decares, while dragon fruit and papaya each occupy about 1,000 decares.

Farmers highlight sustainability concerns, particularly water usage: bananas require daily irrigation, but mangoes can get by with weekly watering. Facing declining water resources, farming investments are now planned with water availability in mind.

Despite strong yields, export competitiveness remains a challenge. Türkiye’s first integrated avocado facility, Anmey Global Tarım, notes that competing on price with foreign producers is hard — instead, they emphasize taste.