Yasemin Korkut started selling dried figs, grown in her father’s garden, on social media outlets. As demand grew, she decided to enlarge the venture by adding more products. She lives in the western province of İzmir.
She has even experimented with other dried fruits, such as pineapples, bananas, kiwis and even eggplants.
Strong demand for her products grew more and she entered a local competition, titled “Young Women Empowering,” winning second place with her project.
She created jobs for 30 women from her village and established a facility that included a cold storage depot. All this with the help of100,000 Turkish Liras grant from the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB),
she is now shipping her products under the label “Bilara,” named after her neighborhood’s former name, to a number of cities across Turkey.
She is currently expecting to receive orders from Germany this year.
“We annually produce some 100 tons of dried fruits and vegetables. I want to increase the capacity to create more jobs for women. I want to enter foreign markets,” Korkut said.
According to her interest from local consumers remain strong so they could hardly meet the demand. That is why she wants to build a new 800-meter-square facility.
“I am an ambitious person. I get what I want. We started out with one woman, now we are 30 women working here. Women must believe in themselves. Women can achieve anything if they really want to,” she said.
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