Once upon a time Turkey was considered as an agricultural warehouse.

Many agricultural products were grown on these lands. One of these agricultural products was citrus. Turkey was among the first 10 countries in the world when it came to citrus production. As for citrus exports Turkey was among the first five countries.

Failure to provide adequate support to farmers, combined with economic and political crises has led Turkey to the point of finishing off with its agricultural products. The indispensable fruit of the winter months, vitamin C-full mandarin, this year was abandoned to rot in the gardens. Thousands of mandarin trees were growing ripe in the gardens waiting for buyers, until they finally began to fall, rotten.

At the mercy of traders, mandarina producers are trying to sell their products even at a loss. Many producers of tangerines cannot find a buyer, and the producer who finds the buyer sells his products at a cheap price. At market and grocery tangerines are sold between 3 and 5 Turkish Lira a kilo. Tangerine outside was sold up to 5 Turkish Lira a kilo and now they sell between 400 and 500 cents of Turkish Lira.

The farmer, who could not sell his products at the price he wants because of the economic crisis and the increases in fuel and fertilizer, was left to the mercy of traders. The price is determined by traders in the agricultural products, and so is mandarin price.

In Izmir’s Seferi Hisar district, Hakan Olmez said that the tangerine prices in the city are determined by the traders.

Olmez added: "In my garden there are tons of tangerines. I expected buyers but I could not get a good price". Olmez blamed the state and government departments for the fall in the prices and the economic crisis.

Olmez insisted: "Traders buy from us at a very low price but sell at markets for 4 or 5 Turkish Lira a kilo. I'm still waiting for a proper buyer. But if I don't sell it in a week, all my products will rot".