ANTALYA – Anatolia News Agency

Antbirlik, a cooperative union for citrus and cotton in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, has announced an increase in their purchase price for top-quality cotton.

The price for “white ST-1 quality’ cotton is increasing from 1.80 Turkish Liras per kilogram to 2.10 liras, according to a written statement from Antbirlik Chairman Abdullah Balaban.

“Cotton, which used to be called white gold, is more valuable than gold now due to the changes in the commodity markets in recent years. Therefore, we decided to further increase our purchase price for cotton, which we only recently increased from 1.6 Turkish Liras to 1.8,” said Balaban.

Cotton prices have been showing a serious fluctuation in both the national and international markets, Balaban said, citing this as another factor in the union’s decision to increase the price.

“Growers who could not earn enough from wheat and corn have returned to cultivating cotton thanks to the price policy followed by the union. They have increased their income by cultivating cotton,” he said.

Balaban also said the union had played a key role expanding areas of cotton cultivation by encouraging farmers to enter the cotton business.

“Areas of cotton cultivation had greatly shrunk in our region – nearly to the point of non-existence – but now it has started to make cultivators happy again. We are happy to have a share in that,” he said.