Abstract:

Apricot (Prunus armenica) being one of the stone fruits is firstly consumed as fresh, and then as dried fruit and concentrated juice, as well. Moreover, it as an important raw material is also used for jam and marmalade production in manufacturing industries. The aim of this study is to examine the production, consumption, foreign trade of fresh apricot in the world and Turkey by considering the data of FAO and TUIK institution. Apricot is almost cultivated in the worldwide, and about 96% of the world’s production is provided from Asia, Europe and Africa continents. The most important apricot producer countries are Turkey, Iran,Pakistan, Italy, Uzbekistan, France, Japan and Spain, respectively. Although Turkey with 20.62% share of in the world’s apricot production took place in the first line, in the world’s apricot export it was ordered as the sixth country after France, Spain, Italy,Greek and Uzbekistan, which was of the share of 63.7%. While a major part of Turkish apricot production amount was supplied to meet domestic demand, there was no production model to provide contribute to national economy and lead to foreign trade.In the production regions of Turkey which had absolute advantage in terms of the natural production factors, accession to both technical and economical effectiveness and optimal yield levels could be realized by modern apricot orchards having optimal sizeestablished by high productive rootstocks and apricot cultivars being able to adapt much well to region, which used optimal inputs and made effectively orchard preparation, care, harvest, product storage and hauling processes.

Keywords: