Gümüldür Mandarin History

Gümüldür; 50 km away from Izmir, Nusret Şener's path crossed in the late 1940s with the charming town, whose unique coast is covered with pine forests and where the smell of pine and iodine mixes with the smell of tangerine flowers. Nusret Şener, who came from the Black Sea to Gümüldür, the charming town of İzmir, tried to grow some fruits grown in the Black Sea in Gümüldür. Nusret Şener tried hazelnut saplings for the first time without success. Later, when he saw orange trees in a garden in the old village, he brought a few saplings from his hometown Rize to Gümüldür, which the Black Sea people knew and loved in Japan's Satsuma Island, then brought them to their homeland, planted them, and received products. With this initiative, Nusret Şener would introduce Gümüldür to the world.

Since there was no possibility to use underground water at that time, he started to look for a place where the saplings would be planted. In order to benefit from the well in the garden of Hasan the gardener, who was gardening at the time, he offered to plant these saplings in Hasan the gardener's garden. Thus, they planted satsuma mandarin saplings for the first time in 1950 in the garden of Hasan the gardener in Karadayı neighborhood. When the saplings produced the first fruit in that garden and started to generate income, the people of Gümüldür asked Nusret Şener for saplings, thinking that this tangerine would grow here and would be a good source of income. Nusret Şener brings the saplings from Rize to Gümüldür, and to encourage the people, he distributes the saplings to those who have money and to those who do not, to be paid in the future.

Thus, the first satsuma mandarin begins to be produced in Gümüldür. Later, the surrounding towns and districts took these saplings from Gümüldür and planted them in their own settlements. However, due to the air, soil and water of Gümüldür, the membranes of these tangerines are very thin, even melting in the mouth, juicy, seedless and thin-skinned, making the color, smell and aroma of these tangerines a worldwide name.

Although there is frost in the nearest towns in winter, it is known by the producers and consumers that Gümüldür tangerines ripen 15 days earlier than the neighboring towns and districts and enter the market 15 days earlier due to the fact that the Dereboğazı region is warmer and softer, the quality is better, the taste is more delicious and ripens earlier. After Gümüldür tangerines are consumed in the market; tangerines produced by towns such as Seferihisar, Ahmetbeyli, Özdere are put on the market for consumption.

After the tangerines started to develop and ripen in Gümüldür, tangerine producers came together and established a cooperative. Through the cooperative, they go to Japan to see the care, planting and production of satsumas on site and to learn how to get better quality products. They received training on tangerine production and care and returned to their town. Today, satsuma is grown on 12 thousand acres of land, and most of the 40 thousand tons of production is exported annually.