Making the goal of producing soilless strawberries a reality in the greenhouse she established in Muğla's Milas district, the Chairman of the Board of En Fruit, Şeyma Serinkaya, took action to implement Turkey's largest soilless strawberry production greenhouse. Serinkaya will start exporting by meeting the needs of the region by producing on an area of 45 decares in the next 3 years.
Şeyma Serinkaya, who started working in the finance sector after her university education, underlined that she received the support of her mother Zeynep Ayvaz, her older sister Serap Al Nakeeb and her husband in her entrepreneurship story, and said, “It was my biggest dream to have my own business. I researched for about 1.5 years. I talked to companies and producers based in Antalya and companies that set up greenhouses. I prepared my entire projection and feasibility on strawberry. Strawberry is already a product with a very high added value. We decided to invest as a result of the feasibility studies we made.”
"Antalya is full of greenhouses" We invested in Milas"
Explaining that the Antalya region has had enough of investment in this area, Serinkaya said that they decided on Milas, “Antalya has had enough of this type of investment, but there is none in this region. There is a serious production in the soil in the Aydın region. Being close to Bodrum and the airport made this place profitable. We established our greenhouse with a 3-layer system on an area of 5 decares. According to conventional agriculture, it covers an area of 22 decares. We have an annual production capacity of 70 tons,” he said.
Explaining that they benefited from the support provided to women entrepreneurs in financing the investment, Serinkaya stated that they focused primarily on exports with the slogan 'The sweetest form of fruit' inspired by the initials of their daughters Ece and Nil, but they carried out the first harvest in March as planting stagnated to the end of December for technical reasons. He said, “When I took samples to a few specific patisseries in Bodrum, there was an immediate response. They asked directly. There was no problem with the marketing of the product. In addition, it is difficult for any pest to enter from the outside in terms of health. Very little use of chemicals. Since it is an isolated environment from the soil, there are no weeds and no herbicides are used. Therefore, it becomes a healthy food.”
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“Our goal is to be the largest in hydroponic strawberry production”
Reminding that there was no pandemic yet when they decided to invest, Serinkaya said, “I don't want to produce a product other than strawberry. It might be blueberries, but we don't want to go too far beyond strawberry. Currently, the biggest greenhouse in this area is in Antalya with 25 decares. My goal is to be the largest producer of soilless strawberry farming in Turkey. We want to achieve this as soon as possible. Therefore, it continues with the land owners at the point where we are. We want to include the lands next to and opposite our greenhouse into the system. In 3 years, our greenhouse size will reach 45-50 decares”.
"Good research should be done"
Şeyma Serinkaya, who called for entrepreneur candidates to 'do good research', said, “We expect a harvest of 650-700 grams from a plant per year. Sometimes it is said that you will get 1.5-2 kg yield without knowing how much yield this plant will give. The investor calculates that the investment will return within 1-2 years when the entrepreneur makes feasibility based on these figures. There is no such thing. Let them research and analyze well," he said.