Turkish wines and wine industry

Turkey is an amazing country with so much to offer…

One of the most beautiful landscape and natural beauties as well as most important historical ruins all belong to the civilizations established in this unique part of the world..

Talking about food for instance, Turkish kitchen is known to be among first three in the world..

Turkish wine however has not received the popularity it has long deserved. This is mainly due to poor marketing and because Turks have not attributed enough importance on wine all along as Islam bans drinking alcohol regardless of what type.

Nevertheless it is would be very interesting to know, The Caucasus region, where the countries of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey are located today has played a major role in the early history of wine and Anatolia or Asia Minor (where Turkey is located today)  is thus very likely to have been one of the earliest wine-producing regions of the world.

It is estimated that Turkey is home to over 1000 varieties of Vitis vinifera (European grapevine). This country has over 1,500,000 acres planted under vine and is the fourth leading producer of grapes in the world.

The first commercial winery in Turkey was established by ATATÜRK, founder of the Republic of Turkey and first president, in 1925.

The wine production in this country was 287,000 hl whereas in 2009 this quantity went up to 20,900,000 litres

PRIVATE SECTOR AND INDUSTRY

Private sector companies have substantiallycontributed to the development of the sector and today well made fine Turkish wines are exported to many destinations thanks to the new technologies imported as well as the high quality of Turkish grapes.

Among  such companies KAVAKLIDERE is known to be sector leader with a very strong reputation both in the domestic and foreign markets.

DOLUCA is another prominent brand with a considerable market share.

Nevertheless it is difficult to say Turkish wine companies are conduction efficient marketing activities as compared to worldwide known brands abroad.

It is only when marketing function is undertaken adequately that Turkish wines will enjoy the high reputation they deserve globally.

14 November 2011

Editor
BUSINESS TURKEY TODAY