Ekonomist: Alova Farm aims for the global league in blueberries

In her Ekonomist report, Özlem Bay Yılmaz describes how Alova Farm, which began production with 5,000 pots in the Altınova district of Yalova, has now reached 125,000 pots, with a year-end target of 200,000. Growing with the capital and technology support of Letven Capital, the company aims to make Türkiye one of the significant players in the global blueberry supply chain.

A small fruit, a large market

The report notes that, according to FAO data, the real value of global agriculture rose 89 percent over the past 20 years to reach USD 3.8 trillion in 2022. According to figures provided by Kamil Kılıç, General Manager of Letven Capital, global fruit and vegetable trade is expected to climb from USD 600 billion to USD 800 billion over the next decade — while the blueberry market is growing far faster: worth roughly USD 6 billion two years ago, it is moving towards USD 13 billion. Behind that growth lies a shift in consumer behaviour, as blueberries’ high antioxidant content aligns directly with healthy living and the “longevity” trend.

Where capital meets agriculture

Kılıç argues that the economic value created by bringing Türkiye’s agricultural supports together with technology and venture capital could be far higher. In Letven Capital’s approach, agricultural technologies, processing, value-added food, data and artificial intelligence, exports and branding are all treated as parts of the same ecosystem; the aim is to build not merely a production economy out of agriculture but a new “value economy”. “The first investment in the TARS Venture Capital Fund we established was received on 14 July 2021. The fund grew 43-fold over a five-year period. We will have created a new economy out of the agricultural sector,” Kılıç says.

From strawberries to blueberries

Levent Sarılgan, founder and chairman of Alova Farm, began his journey in agriculture with a 10-decare strawberry greenhouse and went on to try everything from raspberries and blackberries to currants. “Producing without pesticides and to high standards multiplies costs; yet the product still meets the same pricing pressure in the same market,” he says, explaining why he needed to move towards a crop capable of generating higher added value. While pursuing the quality varieties he had seen at international trade fairs, contact was established with Fall Creek — one of the world’s leading blueberry genetics programmes — and the “Arabella Blue” collection series was brought to Türkiye.

Letven Capital removed the scale barrier

The real obstacle in front of production was scale. “On a heavy snowy day in February, just as I was thinking of leaving the land behind, I was searching online for ‘agricultural investments’. Letven Capital came up,” Sarılgan recalls of how he came to meet Kamil Kılıç. After Kılıç visited the farm, his words became the turning point: “You do it, we’ll support you. Don’t move to America or anywhere else; stay here and keep fighting.” The partnership and incorporation followed in 2022, and a story that began with 5,000 pots reached 125,000 in just three years, with a target of 200,000 by the end of 2026. That figure means that within two years Alova Farm alone will produce 1,000 tonnes of fruit, meet 10 percent of Türkiye’s total blueberry output, and rank among the world’s ten largest northern berry producers.

The balance in the global market is shifting

China, which was not a significant producer in 2021, has today reached annual output of 2 million tonnes. Peru rose to global leadership on the strength of USD 2.2 billion in exports last year alone, while Morocco sold EUR 650 million worth to Spain on 85,000 tonnes of production. Türkiye’s total fresh fruit and vegetable exports stand at around USD 1.7 billion, with export value per kilogram below USD 1; competing countries, by contrast, export blueberries at EUR 6–7 per kilogram. Annual consumption per capita is roughly 100 grams in Türkiye against 3 kilograms in Europe.

The goal: exporting 100 percent of production

Sarılgan expects Türkiye’s blueberry production to reach around 20,000 tonnes after 2030 and domestic prices to settle: “The domestic market is quite crowded at the moment. But we foresee that after 2030 production in Türkiye will reach 20,000 tonnes, prices will level out domestically and overseas prices will stay higher. That is why we work with a global partner; the Americans have to buy everything I produce. We have built our entire structure around that. From next season our target is to export 100 percent of our production.”

Agriculture is no longer done in soil alone

Alova Farm grows in pots rather than soil, in a controlled, data-driven system. The substrate is made of coconut husk, peat and perlite; water is purified with pH levels monitored, and irrigation and feeding are managed according to the plant’s needs. The aim is not to produce more fruit but better fruit with fewer resources. Kılıç points to a revenue potential of USD 100 million were 7,000 decares in Yalova devoted to blueberries, noting that water use could also be reduced substantially.

A USD 2 million packing facility

Alongside a planted area that grows every year, packing, quality control, logistics and export infrastructure is being built. The new packing facility, established with an investment of roughly USD 2 million, has a capacity of about 2.5 tonnes per hour and uses AI-supported image processing systems to grade fruit by criteria such as size, colour, firmness and surface quality. The plan is for the facility to serve not only Alova Farm but also other growers in the region.

Sarılgan’s ambition: 500 decares

Sarılgan’s longer-term target is to expand production to 500 decares — some 250,000 pots and roughly 1,500 tonnes of fruit. The company intends to direct all of its output to exports in the period ahead, focusing in particular on the European and UK markets. The report underlines that Türkiye’s future in agriculture will be determined less by how many decares of land it holds than by how much value it can generate from that land. For Kılıç, the issue is larger than the success of any single company: “What really concerns us is attracting strong capital from abroad so that the Turkish market can become a global player.”