The rose garden of Türkiye, Isparta, began its rose harvest early due to low rainfall and warm weather. With an expected yield of 12 thousand tons, the city also holds high expectations for rose tourism.
Isparta, which meets 65% of the world's rose oil demand, started its rose harvest 15-20 days early this year due to warm weather. As the rose flowers bloom, the city is enveloped in the scent of roses and bustling work begins in the rose gardens early in the morning. Carefully collected roses are transported to local facilities, where they are distilled in large stills to produce rose oil and rose water. Approximately one kilogram of rose oil is obtained from about four tons of rose flowers.
A significant portion of the rose oil is exported this year, Isparta expects a rose flower yield of 12 thousand tons, and the rose harvest season, which makes significant contributions to the country and regional economy, also provides an important tourism income for the local population through the visitors it attracts, lasting for 45 days.
One of the places in the city where roses bloom is Ardıçlı village, located in the Keçiborlu district. Roses collected early in the morning in Ardıçlı village are placed in sacks and transported to factories. Yakup Yolcu, the former headman of Ardıçlı village and a producer, explained to the (IHA) correspondent that the harvest started early due to the season, mentioning that:
"Due to the lack of rain, the density of roses varies from field to field due to climate conditions. While some fields have rose flowers at three meters, others don't have them until five meters. It is raining these days; if it continues, the harvest will last long; if not, there is a high probability that this year's rose season will end early. Hopefully, it will be a good and fruitful season. May our farmers prosper." Yolcu also mentioned that the early start of the rose harvest has affected tourism, saying, "Tour operators scheduled their programs according to the normal date of the rose harvest, but our harvest started early due to the season, so tourism is a bit slow. Hopefully, it will pick up in the coming days. I wish all producers a prosperous and profitable season."
Tolgahan Sarıkaya, who has been farming on 100 decares of land in Ardıçlı village for 20 years, said that the intensity of rose flower harvesting started early. Sarıkaya said, "Rose farming is a good profession; we only have recently had some problems related to workers. There weren't this many rose fields before. Because of the lack of modern agricultural tools in our market, not everyone was doing this much rosework. Everyone was working on a small area. With the advancement of technology, people are now producing on 50-100 decares, so we were having trouble finding workers. Other than that, we don't have any problems."
Another producer, Yusuf Yıldırım, said that the season started well: "It started about 20-25 days early this year. The yield is quite good, thank God." Yıldırım also mentioned that producers incur high expenses, saying, "Because of the high costs such as fuel, chemicals and labor, producers don't make much profit. It's not like they are making much money; they barely cover their costs."