ANKARA: Fish breeding in the dams of the landlocked southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş are exported to 15 countries across the world, daily Hürriyet has reported. The many tons of certificated fish produced in Kahramanmaraş, play an important role among the city’s export items, and breeders are now trying to increase both production and export figures, despite the city having no shore. Mehmet Aras, the Kahramanmaraş head of the Association of Aquaculture Breeder and Producers, said fish exports were rising every year, confounding the Anatolian province’s shoreless geography. “We export almost 5,000 tons of fish and related products every year. Kahramanmaraş’s fish export figures reached 35 million Turkish liras in 2015. This rose to 30 million liras in the first nine months of 2016,” Aras added.
The provincial director of the Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, İhsan Emiralioğlu, said they particularly exported caviar and seed fish. “Almost 41 tons of caviar was exported in 2016,” he said. Kahramanmaraş hosts to the Ceyhan River, which leads to the Mediterranean. Fish breeding in facilities on the river’s dams in the province are exported to Romania, Poland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhistan, China, U.S., Iraq and Iran.
