The mussel farms, which are operating on the shores of Yalova, are preparing for the harvest to be held in June. It is aimed to generate an annual income of 200 million TL once the farms that will clean the Sea of Marmara and serve as reefs start working at full capacity.
The mussel farms, which are operating on the shores of Yalova, are preparing for the harvest to be held in June. It is aimed to generate an annual income of 200 million TL once the farms that will clean the Sea of Marmara and serve as reefs start working at full capacity.
With the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the first harvest will be made next month in 4 of the 7 facilities with an annual capacity of 9 thousand tons, which are intended to be a measure against mucilage and for which applications have been made.
Suat Parıldar, Director of the Provincial Agriculture and Forestry, who examined the pre-harvest works in the mussel farm established off the coast of Çınarcık district, received information from the authorities.
Parıldar, who follows mussel planting, classification, and pre-harvest mussels, told reporters that Yalova has a 123-kilometer coast to the Sea of Marmara.
Stating that in addition to fisheries, activities for aquaculture and the establishment of 7 mussel enterprises in Marmara have started since 2019, Parıldar said, “Currently, the projects of all our enterprises have been approved. The installation of our 4 farms with an annual capacity of 6 thousand tons has been completed. The installation of our farms with a capacity of 3 thousand tons continues.”
Certified mussel production
Parıldar stated that the fishermen of Yalova caught about 14 thousand tons of fish last year in the Sea of Marmara and earned more than 276 million liras.
Emphasizing that the mussel farms will increase Yalova’s income from fisheries, sea, and aquaculture soon, Parıldar shared the following information:
“When our 7 mussel farms with a capacity of 9 thousand tons start production at full capacity, their contribution to the economy will be close to 200 million liras per year. Mussel farms are being established in different provinces in Turkey, but we started operating in our city to produce the first mussels with the ‘Good Agricultural Practices’ certificate and ‘Organic Agriculture’ certificate. Again, we present our products in our province with a value-added production method that can be different from other provinces. This year or next year, we will produce mussels with Good Agricultural Practices certificate and Organic Agriculture certificate.”
Suat Parıldar added that since 2020, 20 boats that were found to be illegal mussel fishing were confiscated, and 7,000 sacks of mussels obtained from poaching were released into the sea.
Aquaculture engineer Ali Evsen, the manager of the farm on an area of 174 thousand square meters in Çınarcık, stated that they have an annual mussel production capacity of 2 thousand 574 tons.
Noting that they will start sales next month, Evsen said, “Our target for this year is to produce around 800 tons of product. It will take 2 years for us to reach full capacity. Our main goal is to export, although it is mainly in the domestic market. We want to obtain value-added and processed products and export them not only to Europe but to the whole world.”
