ANKARA
Turkish Minister of Agriculture, Food and Animal Breeding, Mehdi Eker, has said that field-based support payments to hazelnut producers would continue to be given in 2012 and it was about to signed by the cabinet.
Inaugurating Anadolu Agency's (AA) photo exhibition "Hard-gotten Hazelnuts" with AA Executive Board Chairman and Director General Kemal Ozturk in Ankara on Wednesday, Eker said that the exhibition made an important contribution to the art of photography via one of the most important agricultural products of Turkey.
Eker said that the exhibition was an outcome of an intensive, massive and a very difficult endeavour and thanked the photo journalists who reflected the cheer, sadness and excitement of the hazelnut pickers, including the ones coming from southeastern Turkey as seasonal labor force, with a great success.
Minister Eker suggested tea as the subject of the next thematic AA photo exhibition.
Stating that Turkey provided 75-80 percent of world's hazelnuts exportation, Eker said that hazelnut was an important element of Turkish culture, taking place in literature, arts, poems, music and folklore.
AA would be largest stock photo selling agency in coming years, Kemal Ozturk
AA Executive Board Chairman and Director General Kemal Ozturk said that Anadolu Agency's photo journalists were the best photo journalists not only in Turkey but also in the region and added that Anadolu Agency's photo service has decided to participate in all international photo contests.
Stating that AA had been reflecting the history, culture, beliefs, and geography of Turkey for 92 years by the photos taken, Ozturk said that AA had the largest photo archives in Turkey.
Ozturk gave the good news that AA would announce the opening of the world's largest photo news archives on June 1, 2012 and the opening of the world's largest photo bank on June 1, 2013. He said that those photos would be for sale internationally and AA would be the largest stock photo selling agency in the coming years.
He also said that AA would continue to do thematic photo exhibitions.
The exhibition features 67 photos taken by AA photo journalists in the Black Sea cities of Duzce, Ordu, Giresun and Trabzon and reflects the hazelnut processing, harvest, drying and shelling of nuts.
AA photo journalists Murat Kaynak, Fazil Sarac, Omer Urer, Yasar Karaman and Hayati Akcay brought the harvesting process, hazelnut pickers and their working conditions onto their photos.
