Environmental friendly tea production in Turkey

The first attempt to introduce tea to Turkey at the turn of the 19^th century from China was unsuccessful because the wrong location was selected.
However, later attempts from 1924 to 1937 with imported seeds from Georgia within the former USSR succeeded.
The government in 1940 completed a tea law and until today the government has supported tea farmers.
In 1947, the first tea factory with 60 t day^‑1 capacity was built in Rize, capital of the tea industry in Turkey.
The tea industry and growing areas developed and expanded very fast between 1950 and 1960, and in 1965 the tea production in Turkey reached a self-sufficient level.
The country is now one of the most important tea producers in the world (ranking 5^th place) in terms of the production after China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka.
Currently, all tea plantations in Turkey are established by seeds and show huge heterogeneity.
Around the 1970s, some selection studies were carried out on these seedlings to obtain promising clones and some clones were created and released but not widely commercialized.
The tea industry in Turkey solely consists of black tea production but more recently product diversification (green tea, mixed with some fruits) has been initiated.
In addition, tea improvement activities, which concentrate on clonal selection to decrease seedling populations, have also been initiated again.

IV Balkan Symposium on Fruit Growing

S. Ercişli

Camellia sinensis, Turkey, history, cultivation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1289.45