Purple Harvest in Muğla Started with a Festival

The Scent Valley Project, implemented by Muğla Metropolitan Municipality to increase plant production, support rural development, and spread the production of medicinal aromatic plants, started its harvest period with the Lavender Festival. While producers and citizens participated in lavender harvesting at the festival, value-added products produced by cooperatives were also introduced to visitors.

Lavender Turns into Added Value

Within the scope of the project carried out on the land owned by Muğla Metropolitan Municipality in Yerkesik Yeniköy, lavenders cultivated by women producers who are members of the Yerkesik Agricultural Development Cooperative are processed at the Distillation Facility established by the Metropolitan Municipality and transformed into value-added products such as essential oil, soap, cologne, shampoo, and similar products. Producers have the opportunity to earn higher income by processing the products they grow, and these products are brought to the public through MELSA.

Buket Kallem: “We Stand by Our Producers from Production to Marketing”

Buket Kallem, Head of Agricultural Services Department, stated that Muğla Metropolitan Municipality continues to support rural development and that they have distributed approximately 220 thousand saplings in 12 neighborhoods of Menteşe.

Kallem expressed that the supported products are processed through cooperatives and transformed into value-added products in distillation facilities,

“We support our cooperatives during the production processes of many products and introduce the produced products to our citizens through our sales points and MELSA. Thus, we establish an integrated rural development model extending from production to marketing.”

Thanks to the Metropolitan from the Producers

Dursun Sefer, Head of Yerkesik Yeniköy Neighborhood, stated that the Lavender Festival is an important value for the promotion of their neighborhood and for producers, and thanked Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ahmet Aras for his support to agriculture.

Feyzullah Ören, President of Yerkesik Agricultural Development Cooperative, said that they started medicinal and aromatic plant production in 2019 and today transformed these into value-added products and delivered them to many parts of Turkey. Ören indicated that with the support of the Metropolitan Municipality, they also began silkworm breeding activities this year, there is a high demand for the products, and they aim to increase production capacity in the upcoming period.

Producer Sibel Mavioğlu also stated that they started lavender production thanks to the Scent Valley Project and that the support provided not only enabled them to produce but also helped them look to the future with more hope.

Mayor Aras: “Strengthening Our Producers is Strengthening Muğla”

Ahmet Aras, President of Coastal Municipalities Union and Muğla Metropolitan Municipality, emphasized that agriculture is one of the fundamental sectors of Turkey's development and said the following:

“Today we see once again how valuable production is here. The producing villager is the lifeblood and the greatest assurance of this country. To enable our people to continue producing and living where they were born, we must invest more in our villages and support our producers more.”

Mayor Aras stated that they aim to create a strong rural development model in which women and young people participate in production and said they work to give economic value to every product grown by producers.

“MELSA buys our producers’ products at their deserved value and leads the marketing of local products. Together, we aim to create a strong brand representing Muğla. I always stand by my colleagues. As long as they support our producers. Because, as Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said, ‘The villager is the master of the nation.’ I wish our harvest to be good, fertile, and profitable.”

After the speeches, Ahmet Aras, President of Coastal Municipalities Union and Muğla Metropolitan Municipality, carried out symbolic lavender harvesting together with the producers. Citizens sharing the excitement of the harvest in the purple fields took many souvenir photos in the lavender gardens throughout the event and joined the festive atmosphere.