The conservation and management of biodiversity is important for our sustainability vision, our strategic goals, and our environmental preservation operations here at Ülker. We believe that agriculture and biodiversity need to be supported in Turkey, a country that has an important position in terms of agricultural product diversity.
Our long-standing approach to the preservation and management of biodiversity includes monitoring and evaluating the impacts our operations have on biodiversity, as well as ensuring that we act according to our biodiversity targets and conduct the appropriate reporting.
As a leading food company that sources its raw materials from the earth, we are aware that agriculture is of critical importance for the sustainability of our operations. To support biodiversity we are conducting the "Sustainable Hazelnut Agriculture" project to protect the hazelnuts that we use in many of our products and hazelnut farming in cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Turkey).
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Turkey is the largest hazelnut producer and exporter in the world, producing 70% and exporting 82% of the world's hazelnuts.
We are working to protect the Giresun hazelnut, ranked highest in the world for the best quality hazelnuts, and to spread sustainable hazelnut farming practices and take care of our delicious hazelnuts that are an indispensible ingredient of our products along with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Turkey), local governments, nongovernmental organizations and our farmers.
The project's main approach is “a future where humankind and nature exist in harmony” and it is based on the idea that natural living and biodiversity should co-exist in regions where hazelnuts are grown and farmed.
One of our main goals is to demonstrate that it is possible to improve the ecological sustainability of hazelnut farming along with its economic and social sustainability in regions where hazelnuts are part of the natural flora and where hazelnuts are grown and farmed, particularly in Giresun. In the scope of the project, we determine the current state of the industry and the expansion area of hazelnut farming in Giresun and develop solutions that will make agriculture farming environmentally friendly. We will be sharing the results of the research in the “On the Way to Sustainable Hazelnut Production in Giresun” Report which will be published within the year. Additionally we have started pilot applications and trainings in selected hazelnut farms located in Giresun.