Cold weather hits fruit producers

In Mersin, which has experienced its harshest winter in recent years, temperatures dropped below zero. After the Meteorology Department issued a frost warning, farmers in the regions where greenhouse production is carried out stated that they kept watch for three nights and lit stoves in greenhouses to keep the temperature of their greenhouses constant. In addition to greenhouses, the cold weather also hit stone fruit trees such as peach, plum, apricot and cherry trees that are in the flowering stage and lemon trees that are in the harvest stage.

"DECLARED A DISASTER ZONE"

The farmers of the region, who said that they could not get insurance because they could not afford it, said, "Mersin should be declared a disaster area."

Farmer Necmi Tek, who lives in Bozön village of Mezitli, one of the villages hit by the frost disaster, said, “We are currently very victimized. I don’t know if many of our friends had TARSİM installed or not. Due to the intense cold weather, especially in the hard-core ones, it has hit 20 tons of my peaches right now. It has hit nearly 10 tons of my plums. It has hit nearly 20 tons of my lemons. It has hit nearly 50 tons of my goods. We had not gone to TARSİM and had insurance. Because I am telling you honestly, there has been no money to give to TARSİM for two years, because it is not enough. Our lemons were very hot last year in June, and we suffered damage because of that. There is no money to give to TARSİM because of this damage. We are having a hard time paying the Irrigation Union. We are really very victimized. The average age in our villages is 50. Unfortunately, as producers, we have not seen any young entrepreneurs for 10 years. Our villagers are old and tired. I have a request from the state. We ask them to declare this region a disaster area. "We are calling out to our statesmen. Do not forget us. If you forget us, we will forget you," he said.

Farmer Yahya Demir also said, “There was a terrible frost in our village. There are no citrus fruits, peaches, plums left. The cold hit them all. It reached minus 9. I have not seen such cold in the last 30 years. I saw it drop to minus 9 for the first time. Even 70-year-old Jaffa trees were destroyed. The villagers are miserable. People cannot produce a solution. They are just thinking.”