A SISTER TO PINE HONEY IS COMING

News: Berkay BAYRAK

Source: Muğla Yenigün

In Muğla, the Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture and Tourism (EGET) Foundation, established in 2015, broke new ground last year and established Turkey’s largest private truffle business in Armutçuk neighborhood of Ula district.

This time, a large group of participants planted lavender seedlings among oak saplings on the foundation’s land. For the project, which started in December last year in line with the recommendations of Ula District Agriculture Director Süleyman Kurnaz, rootstock bushes were brought from Isparta and propagated in a greenhouse environment for four months. At the picnic, which took place in an atmosphere of enthusiasm, the participants first planted lavender seedlings in the soil and then had a picnic with the picnic materials they brought with them. During the event where new friendships were established, the participants also had the opportunity to get to know EGET Foundation.

EGET Foundation, which considers it one of its goals to set an example for local farmers in terms of agricultural production diversity, this time brought the first lavender field of all our coastal cities to Muğla. In 2017, the Foundation will start producing lavender honey and continues to color agricultural production in Muğla.

In the 22,000 m2 enterprise, the foundation managers, who chose lavender and lavender honey as secondary products along with truffle, organized a Lavender Planting Picnic with the slogan ‘Let Lavender Blossom to Support Education’. Safai Özer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of EGET Foundation, told the volunteers from the center and districts of Muğla and various provinces of Turkey about what the foundation has done so far, its projects and goals. Özer said that the Super-A type lavender seedlings obtained from the lavender planted in the greenhouse environment are sufficient to meet the seedling requirements not only of Armutçuk Agricultural Enterprise but also of our producers who want to start lavender production.

The executives of EGET Foundation, whose main goal is to provide scholarships to university students who have difficulty in studying due to economic difficulties, starting from the 2016-2017 academic year, state that they consider it inevitable to establish economic enterprises to create revolving capital for the foundation. Armutçuk Agricultural Enterprise, the first agricultural enterprise of the Foundation, was established last year in Muğla- Ula, Armutçuk Neighborhood.