The rose production started in Burdur, a city located in southwestern Turkey, in the 1880’s, however with the spread of cattle farming in the 1990’s in the area, it has lost its popularity and significance in the local economy. However now there are efforts to bring it back in a project area of 2 million square feet.
The person responsible for the project Ozturk Sarica: “Rose is a part of the culture in Burdur, however cattle farming had replaced rose production in the last 3 decades. Right now we are working hard to re-discover our roots in this regard. We started this project 4 years ago and now we expect around 40 tons of products this year. In the future, we are planning to increase our production to 60-70 tons.
Turkey is in a strong position regarding rose products such as rose oil and rose water in the global market. These products have a lot of added value in them and the roses from Burdur provide a very good base for the production of these products. These products are used for many different reasons, such as cosmetics. In recent years, there is also a trend of using rose water in the United Kingdom and Japan to prevent Gastro-Intestinal (GI) cancer”
Source: Hurriyet