(AGENPARL) - Roma, 23 Dicembre 2025 - (AGENPARL) – Tue 23 December 2025 [cid:b41e3b92-a226-4c86-8197-fcd77a8e13cc]
A lucrative labour of love
Protecting Türkiye’s Bursa black figs and peaches, from tree to table
[turkiye-figs-DIST.jpg]©FAO/Onur Coban
Hacer Şimşek moves swiftly among the trees, plucking ripened figs and filling the metal buckets that her daughter carries back to the shed.
The 42-year-old farmer’s latex gloves and red arm warmers protect her skin from the fig milk, which can burn and scar.
It’s harvest season for Türkiye’s famous Bursa black figs, and Hacer and her family have been out in the fields since dawn.
They awake at 5am and head out to their orchards where, Hacer says, they “work like robots for two months” scouring the nearly 400 trees on their 3.1 hectares for market-ready figs.
“If you don’t harvest mature figs within three days, you lose them,” she adds.
Most farmers here in Bursa’s Karabalçık village – a hilly patchwork of fruit and olive trees and grape vines – grow black figs for export.
It’s a lucrative market. With each fig tree producing 100 to 120 kilograms of fruit annually – and this year’s farmgate price at 150 Turkish lira (about USD 3.50) per kilo – that’s good revenue, says Hacer.
“We can save money and invest,” she adds. “Last year, we bought a new tractor and a car.”
But the work is physically demanding, and it’s difficult to find seasonal workers for the harvest, which typically runs from early August through September. Climate change is making everything happen earlier than normal, says Hacer.
Her husband, Sabahattin Şimşek, points to the drip irrigation tubes snaking around the fig trees – a buffer against increasingly long dry periods.
While fig trees are relatively durable to climate stresses, Hacer doesn’t take them for granted, showering them with “love and care” post-harvest. “They’re like my babies.”
Türkiye’s Bursa black fig and Bursa peach are two standouts in a region known for its fruits and vegetables.
Türkiye’s patent and trademark agency (Turk Patent) awarded national geographical indication (GI) status to the black fig in 2018 and the peach in 2019, acknowledging the link between their high quality and origin. The European Union recognized the fruits’ GI status in 2024.
Bursa Agricultural Cooperatives Union (Köy-Koop) spearheaded the GI registration process, working closely with local producers, government officials, academics and technical experts.
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provided support throughout this process.
They shared knowledge and raised awareness of the GI’s added value, including organizing a study tour to France for 15 Bursa producers, suppliers, researchers, certifiers and government representatives on protecting and promoting a GI.
FAO and EBRD also helped define the production criteria for each fruit based on international best practices around certification and quality control plans – and strengthened local capacity to manage and maintain the fruits’ reputation.
For Osman Özkan, Head of the Bursa Köy-Koop, safeguarding this reputation was crucial.
“The GI protects the brand from misuse,” he says, as only black figs and peaches grown in Bursa in line with the specific production criteria can claim the name.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Türkiye produced 356 000 tonnes of figs – black and green – in 2025 and 822 000 tonnes of peaches in 2024. Of those, 30 000 to 50 000 tonnes are typically Bursa black figs and around 100 000 tonnes are Bursa peaches.
These criteria – the unique microclimate of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, the varieties used, the pollination, production and harvesting techniques followed – make these fruits distinctive.
The fig stalk, or “button”, for example, gives the Bursa black fig, with its dark purple peel and crimson flesh, a longer shelf life by preventing moisture loss.
While obtaining the GI was a huge achievement, protecting and promoting the fruits, from tree to table, are key to their success.
Local government authorities support farmers with drip irrigation and early warning systems. Many farmers are investing in weather insurance or protective netting against hail, as well as certified saplings. They also take care to shield their orchards from any source that could spoil the fruit’s quality, including chemical pesticide residues from neighbouring crops.
Careful sorting, grading and crating practices and innovative cold storage technologies help preserve the fruits’ shelf life. High-quality packaging and GI branding add to their visual appeal and recognition, while digital traceability systems let consumers know they are buying the real deal.
Local and provincial government officials, producers and retailers are working to raise local consumer awareness of GIs – from creating an annual Bursa GI festival to potentially developing an agritourism route.
Several modern retailers across Türkiye are sourcing local Bursa GI agrifood products, with one prominent business-to-consumer and business-to-business retailer creating a special Bursa GI display in its brick-and-mortar store.
Sertaç Dokuzlu, an economist at Bursa Uludağ University who was involved in the Bursa GI project, points to one significant ripple effect: trust.
“Retailers are now buying other products, like pears and cherries, from the Bursa GI cooperatives because they know they can trust them to meet high quality standards,” she says.
And while you can tell people what’s special about Bursa black figs and peaches, “they need to taste them for themselves” to know, she adds.
Osman, who sees the GI as “a long-term investment”, also wants consumers to know “the labour that goes into producing these fruits.”
The story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/a-lucrative-labour-of-love/en
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