Known as the capital of industry, Kocaeli has actually been an agricultural city since ancient times.

However, although agriculture seemed to be relegated to the background due to the developing industry, it never fell off our agenda.

We have a very important project that we started in Kandıra but plan to spread to our other districts.

As Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, within the scope of our work on eco-tourism, we have implemented our “Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Production Incentive” project within SEKAPARK A.Ş.

Medicinal and aromatic plants are used in many areas, especially in the pharmaceutical industry.

We wanted to support the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in order to increase the income in the villages and to raise the income level of our farmers.

We thought, 'If we encourage their cultivation, then their income levels will increase. This will stop the migration from the village to the city and perhaps encourage return.'

The point we have reached has revealed how right we were in this thought.

With this project, which will be an example for Turkey, a contribution of 28 million TL will be made to the economy of our Kandıra district in 5 years. We expect the economic input to reach 80 million TL with side resources.

Our country ranks 18th in the world in medicinal and aromatic plant exports and 39th in medicinal and aromatic plant imports.

Looking at these figures, we have a serious opportunity and chance ahead of us.

There are many medicinal and aromatic plants, but we planned to grow 'Rosemary, Medicinal Mint and Lemon Balm' according to the characteristics of our geography.

In our project, as the Metropolitan Municipality, we give a purchase guarantee to our farmers and we especially support our women producers.

In the first phase, we signed agreements with 87 producers for the planting of medicinal and aromatic plants.

Just producing is not enough, the products we work hard to create also need to be processed.

For this purpose, we have started our efforts to establish the oil exchange in Kocaeli.

At the meeting held with the participation of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we signed a cooperation protocol with TÜBİTAK for the establishment of the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Production Center (TABİM) within the scope of our “Medical and Aromatic Plants Production Promotion” project.

Food additives, cosmetic products and pharmaceutical raw materials will be produced at TABİM, a first in Turkey.

Thus, the way will be paved for the products produced in Kocaeli to be offered to national and international markets.

Our goal as Kocaeli is to become a Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Farmer Training, Development and Production Center.

I would like to express my endless gratitude to all public institutions and organizations that have supported us on this path, to our farmers, to our producers, and to the people of Kocaeli who have always supported us…

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tahir BÜYÜKAKIN

Mayor of Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality