Seed potatoes from Cappadocia since 1999
Aktohum grows and certifies seed potatoes in Nevşehir, on the high volcanic plateau of Cappadocia in central Turkey. The company was founded in 1999 and has worked in seed ever since — not as a sideline to a table-potato business, but as the business itself.
We farm around 3,000 hectares and produce roughly 150,000 tonnes in a season. Our own multiplication runs through the full six-year chain, from minitubers raised in tissue culture to certified seed:
- Year 1 — minitubers produced in vitro by tissue culture
- Year 2 — pre-basic multiplication in the open field
- Year 3 — Elite 1
- Year 4 — Elite 2
- Year 5 — certified seed
- Year 6 — ware production for processing
Because we run the whole chain ourselves, we can supply any class in it — pre-basic, basic, Elite 1, Elite 2 or certified — rather than only the grade that happens to be left at the end of the season.
Why Cappadocia
The plateau sits high, the air is dry and the nights are cold. Aphid pressure is low, which is the single most important thing you can say about ground used for seed: it is the aphids that carry the viruses that degrade a seed crop. The volcanic tuff of the region also gives us something no shed can imitate — natural cold stores cut into the rock, which hold an even temperature through the year without refrigeration. We excavate and maintain these stores ourselves, and we offer that as a service to other growers.
What we grow
Close to fifty varieties, grouped by what the buyer intends to do with them: table varieties for the fresh market, frying varieties for chips and crisps, and industrial varieties for processing. Each variety on this site carries its full data card — maturity, tuber shape, eye depth, skin and flesh colour, starch and dry matter content, disease and virus resistance, and cooking behaviour — so that you can judge a variety before you ask us about it.
Beyond seed
The same equipment and stores that serve our own crop are available to others. We lift potatoes, carrots and onions with a self-propelled four-row Dewulf Kwatro, we store crop for third parties, we haul it, and we cut new natural stores into the rock.
Certification
Aktohum holds the Turkish Seed Grower Certificate and Seed Producer Certificate, and is registered as an Authorised Seed Enterprise. We are members of the Seed Growers Sub-Union and hold the certificate of TSÜAB, the Turkish Seed Growers Association. Our seed is produced and inspected under the Turkish certification scheme, and every lot leaves with its paperwork.
Working with us
We already ship to buyers in South America and Asia, and we are open to enquiries from growers and distributors anywhere. Tell us the variety, the class and the tonnage you need and when you need it landed, and we will tell you plainly whether we can do it. Phytosanitary documentation is arranged for the destination country as part of the order.
Aktohum
Afat Evleri mah., Ali Dirikoç Bulvarı No: 22/4, Nevşehir, Turkey
Telephone +90 384 257 4 257 · +90 384 212 44 81
Fax +90 384 212 44 91
E-mail info@aktohum.com
