Spreading orange juice from Florida to the world, Tropicana is opening schools in Turkey to improve local fruit, including the Amasya apple, the Silifke strawberry, the Bursa peach and the Malatya apricot, which are becoming famous throughout the world. Having been one of the leading players in the world market for 68 years, Tropicana entered the Turkish market in 2013 and realized the importance of local fruit.
Formulating a concept after 2.5 years of studies, Tropicana decided to beat its local rivals with the Amasya apple, the Silifke strawberry, the Bursa peach and the Malatya apricot. But the company, which has been within the body of PepsiCo since 1998, saw that continuity of those fruits is not easy because of mistakes made in agricultural activities.
That's why the company rolled up its sleeves to teach sustainable horticulture in fruit production in cooperation with the Boğaziçi University Lifelong Learning Center, and thus, the Tropicana Schools Project was born.
Providing training for more than 1,000 farmers in three years is planned within the scope of the project, starting in Bursa and Malatya. After the schools are completed in those cities, the project will go to other cities that are famous for their local fruit. Alpagut Çilingir, Senior Marketing Turkey Director at PepsiCo, said: "We put the tag 'Bursa peach' on our products, but it is not possible to do this during the whole year. We taught villagers how to make sustainable agriculture, when to plant and when to apply medicine."
