Tax on imported watermelons increases domestic production

Turkey had recently quadrupled the tax on imports of watermelons. The tax increased from 75 USD to 300 USD per ton which has nearly eliminated imported watermelons in the market. Most of the watermelons are bought from Iran. Turkey had produced 877 mt of watermelons in 2019, now that the import tax has been imposed domestic growers extra incentive to grow watermelons. The yield is expected to increase in order to fulfil the demand of the domestic demand. Turkey's watermelon exports have quintupled and reached 11 .8 million USD. Turkey exports watermelon to Russia, Romania in addition to Balkan and other European countries. The farm gate price of watermelon in Turkey is currently around 0.10 USD per kg.