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12 CapitalPress.com Friday, September 6, 2019 Engin Esen Aslan Karaca shows a hazelnut from his orchard in Giresun, Turkey. Turkey: The country grows 17 types of hazelnuts from the diseases. Both problems are resolved through spraying and have been addressed through gov- ernment strategic plans, Ogutken said. Continued from Page 1 An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 tons, worth more than $400 mil- lion, are sold on the domestic mar- ket, said Salih Ogutken, deputy general manager of Fiskobirlik. “When you combine both mar- kets (export and domestic), it reaches a volume of about $2 bil- lion,” Ogutken said. Inside Turkey, the Black Sea region produces the lion’s share — about 65% — of the helmet-shaped nuts, known also as filberts, or “fındık” in Turkish, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. The Black Sea province of Ordu alone produces 35% of the coun- try’s total yield. Hand-picked crop Ideal environment The Black Sea region’s moder- ate temperatures, perpetual rain- fall, pH-balanced soil and pre- cipitous hills create a nearly ideal ecology for the trees, according to Ankara University agriculture Professor A. Ilhami Koksal, in his 2002 book, “Turkish Hazelnut Cultivars.” The first record of hazelnuts in present-day Turkey dates back at least 300 years before Christ, Kok- sal wrote. Today, nearly 1.8 million acres in Turkey are planted to hazelnuts, according to the country’s statisti- cal institute. As a contrast, about 70,000 acres of hazelnut trees are planted in Oregon, by far the top U.S. producer of the crop. About 1.2 million acres of almonds grow in California. Each acre of hazelnut orchards contains between 200 and 280 trees and produces 440 to 1,060 pounds of shelled nuts, Ogutken said. There are approximately 410,000 hazelnut producers reg- istered in the country through its farmer registration system, but there are also an estimated 40,000 producers, mostly small landown- ers, who are not registered, often because they inherited land that was divided among siblings and want to avoid the paperwork to register with the state, he said. Many varieties The country grows 17 types of Gurhan Eris Sedat Gunlu, a worker at the family farm of Ihsan Bulent Yuce and Yuce’s nephew, Gurhan Eris. hazelnuts, some of which are com- bined in orchards to encourage pol- lination, according to Koksal. Ana- tolian species include the corylus avellana L. (common hazelnut), maxima mill. (giant filbert), pon- tica c. koch (Mediterranean hazel- nut) and corylus colurna L. (Turk- ish hazelnut). In North America, the native species are corylus americana marsh and corylus cornuta marsh, Koksal wrote. The hazelnuts grown in Giresun province are considered the best in the world in terms of quality, taste and aroma, said Kubilay Yaman, an international nut and seed bro- ker based there. The Tombul, also known as the Giresun oily hazelnut, is a round nut with a high fat content, which lends its rich flavor. The variety accounts for the major- ity of hazelnuts grown in Gire- sun province, but farmers also grow two other varieties that are popular — the “black” Kalinkara hazelnut and the pointed Sivri hazelnut. While the Tombul is susceptible to spring frosts and big bud mites, the pointed Sivri hazelnut — a novelty to North America — is resistant to pests and diseases and to spring frosts. Ashing disease and brown “skunk,” which dries out trees and can stop production for a sea- son, are other threats to the coun- try’s hazelnut crop, though Fisko- birlik had no statistics on losses Despite the mechanization of hazelnut harvests in other parts of Turkey and of the world, Gire- sun and Ordu residents still col- lect filberts the way they have for thousands of years. Most of the orchards have been in families for generations, Ogutken said. Locals and workers, who migrate from southeast Turkey for the harvest season, hand-pick the nuts, collect- ing them into baskets, said Gurhan Eriş, whose family owns hazelnut trees in Ordu. A worker typically earns 120 Turkish Liras — $21 — per day, making handpicking more expen- sive than mechanized production, Ogutken said. A machine can collect roughly six times the amount of nuts as pickers, he said. “When you pay for the machine, you pay only once, and it gets your money back in five years,” he said. Farmers in Ordu and Gire- sun stick to this ancient method of harvest because the trees grow on steep slopes, unconducive to sweeping machines and other types of automation, said Aslan Karaca, a retired primary teacher who has a hazelnut orchard in Giresun. “The geographical conditions are harsh,” said Karaca, whose hazelnut orchards have been in his family for generations. “The ter- rain is rough and steep. There are not roads everywhere.” In some villages such as Bulan- cak in Giresun, where Eriş lives, producers prefer to allow the hazel- nuts to drop from their branches and then collect the nuts from the ground. Shaking the tree to harvest the nuts is a method used in north- western Turkish provinces such as Sakarya, Duzce and Kocaeli, Eriş said. In August of each year, farm- ers use every possible flat surface to dry the harvested hazelnuts, including driveways, sidewalks and as in Bulancak, school parking lots. Once the husks turn brown, usually after four to five days, farmers rent what they call a “peel- ing machine,” which vacuums the nuts into a long tube and removes the husks, said Ihsan Bulent Yuce, Eris’ uncle, who is a co-owner of an orchard in Ordu. The machine costs about 200 to 240 Turkish Liras — $34 to $41 — per hour, Yuce said. The peeled nuts, still in their shell, are then laid out to dry for another three to seven days, depending on the weather, before they are delivered to markets or processing plants, he said. Most nuts go to EU More than 75% of Turkish hazelnut exports go to the Euro- pean Union, according to August statistics from the Black Sea Hazelnut and Products Exporters’ Union. About 42.7% of those exports were processed products while the rest were raw nuts, the exporters’ union reported. About 90% of residents in Ordu and Giresun have a direct connec- tion with the hazelnut industry, said Yaman, the nut and seed bro- ker from Giresun. In the city center of Giresun, the largest city in the province of the same name, stands a statue of a man and a woman carrying a giant filbert still inside its husk, on the top of their heads. In the Turkish culture, holding something on top of one’s head is a gesture and expression of respect, Yaman said. “In our culture … a guest’s place is at the top of our head; our mother’s place is at the top of the head of her sons and daughters,” Yaman said. The hazelnut, in kind, is eco- nomically at the “top of the head” of Giresun and Ordu residents, he said. “Our main earnings come from the hazelnut. We are able to pro- vide education for our children, health and food by the hazelnut,” Yaman said. Gurhan Eris of Bulancak, Tur- key, and Engin Esen of Istanbul translated during interviews for this story. Phylloxera: ‘It’s easier to address it through rootstocks over a long period of time’ Continued from Page 1 Grape quality and pro- duction can be maintained in affected vineyards by “pushing” vines with more water and fertilizer, though such practices cannot ward off the plant’s eventual demise forever, Hoheisel said. The long-term solution is to replant vineyard blocks with varieties that have been grafted onto native North American grape rootstocks, which are able to tolerate phylloxera, she said. “If you have, vine- yards can stay profitable and you can manage it for quite some time,” Hoheisel said. “It’s easier to address it through rootstocks over a long period of time.” Phylloxera proved dev- astating to the French wine industry in the 1800s before grafted rootstocks were identified as a solution, said Buckley of WSDA. With many vineyards in Washington reaching 40-50 years since planting, grape growers will need to examine adopting grafted rootstocks if they’re suf- ficiently afflicted with the pest, she said. “The industry here is at an age that they’re starting to replace vineyards any- way,” Buckley said. The pest has kept a low enough profile in Washing- ton that some grape grow- ers were likely unaware that it’s a quarantine pest and that they’re required to buy grapevines from nurs- eries that have certified as being free of the insect, she said. In sandier soils, grow- ers may be able to continue planting self-rooted grape varieties because the pest may not be able to build up populations enough to become problematic, Buckley said. “Basically, we’re going to be doing a lot more research on this.” It’s well known that “bootleg or suitcase plants” have come into Washing- ton, so the situation high- lights the need to be vig- ilant about disease, said Scharlau of the Washington Winegrowers Association. Apart from buying certi- fied plants, growers should control access to their vineyards, restrict vehi- cle travel to paved roads, avoid sharing field equip- ment and ensure grape bins are cleaned from soil, she said. “This is an opportunity to talk about best manage- ment practices,” Scharlau said.
