The variety of dried-fruits which we share our special conversations on our special days have been growing wider day by day. Appetizing in snack plates together, dried-fruits have useful functions though they let grow fat. Dried-fruits are usually the small reinforcements of different tastes. During long winter nights, they come together in small bowls on the coffee tables while watching TV in our large comfortable armchairs, with storms of excitement as sports programmes. The plump peanut, slender pumpkin seed, pistachio with its magical taste and the closer friend of fermented grain drink-yellow roasted chickpea, sunflower never coming an end,nutritious nuts, almond, raisin are all grown in different regions of Turkey and dress up our dinning tables. Besides not only grown in Turkey, there are also the ones which are grown in other parts of the world and we were just strangers till today but in our meals now. Here are some of those kinds: Salty peanuts extra, Salty peanuts, pumpkin seeds, white roasted chickpeas, yellow roasted chickpeas, roasted chickpeas sweet, crisp roasted chickpeas, extra sunflower, sunflower, dacota, pistachio, almond, coctail, sorted hazelnuts, roasted corns, peanuts with sauce, coctail pistachios, pumpkin seeds...

TURKEY; A DRIED-FRUIT PARADISE In Turkish fruit is “yemiş”. But some dry-served fruit are called dried-fruit. Almost all dried-fruits are gained by drying of fresh vegetables and some by roasting. And Turkey in both growing and consuming is a dried-fruit paradise. So that in no other country else than Turkey is that much idioms and proverbs have been used. Besides in no other country else than Turkey, dried-fruit industry have become a fun industry. And probably in no other country else than Turkey, dried-fruits have been kept in special showcases and taken with special small elegant paddles and put in small paper bags and sold. By the way, it is worth to mention the sellers in the Egyptian Bazaar who make sounds with the small paper bags and play tricks with the paddles. (Çiçek Erdem) Some of the dried-fruits grown in Turkey are used in the favourite Turkish meals. Some are also a free-time activity to kill the stress widely known as “eğlencelik”... Do those kinds really give fun or detain Turkish, this is an unknown fact but while watching an exciting football match or while in a tension for any reason, sunflower or pistachio being pressed between front teeth and crackled and sorted and eaten is known as an irresistable taste. That kind of titbits which usually make our hands and teeth work as parts of a machine park unconsciously can also take us away from high tension and let us relax. Here is a list of dried-fruits grown and sold in Turkey.:

CONSUMPTION IN TURKEY AND IN THE WORLD Pistachio is a real favourite both as a snack and for pastry and chocolate. Especially where it is used as sorted, Turkish pistachio is a preference with its colour and taste. In grower countries 60-70% are used as roasted dried-fruit and 30-40% are in sweet, pastry and candies, in the U.S.A and Europe 90% is consumed as dried-fruits. In our country, internal consumption is not determined and is calculated by the formula that is to extract the export volume and the stock from the production volume. This is usually 70% of the whole country. In 1999/2000 the consumption of dried pistachio with peel was about 30.000 tones, in 2000/2001 it was about 25.000 tones and in 2001/2002 it was about 20.000 tones. The consumption of dried pistachio with peel depends on the crops and it is 25.000 tones in average. The consumption in the times of insufficient crop is 20.000 tones where as it may be 30.000 tones in good crop years.