Finike Orange

Finike Orange… A source of healing, oranges were distributed as medicine to sailors, prisoners, and psychiatric patients in the 19th century to meet their daily vitamin C and mineral salt requirements (Çiftçi, 2019). It was first introduced to Finike in the 1930s by the Şekerci Family. Before that, the fertile lands of Finike were dedicated to rice production. However, because rice cultivation spread malaria via mosquitoes, the rice paddies were uprooted and replaced with orange trees. Thus, on the very lands where mosquitoes once swarmed due to the rice, the breathtaking scent of orange blossoms began to rise, and sun-colored fruits started to flourish amidst deep green leaves.

Oranges showed rapid development in Finike lands until the 1950s (Finike Municipality, 2021). Known both in our country and globally as the 'land of oranges,' Finike’s famous orange was ranked first in a worldwide scientific study conducted by the University of California in 1994. Researchers from the University of California set out to find if there was an equivalent to the California-grown orange, which was then considered the highest quality in the world. At the end of their research, they determined that the oranges grown on the shores of Finike’s Turunçova district were of even higher quality than those in California. Finike Orange is not a piece of nostalgia, it is a global brand (Finike Municipality, 2021).