# Safranbolu District

Karabük's local products will be promoted with ecotourism

The "Safran Project on the Way of Branding" has started to be implemented, for which the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry is the applicant, Safranbolu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a partner, Governorship, Karabuk University and Safranova company are participating. A grant of 3 million lira was given to the project, which was prepared within the scope of the Western Black Sea Development Agency (BAKKA) 2023 Social Development Support Project (SOGEP) and will be implemented in the "Safran Garden with Lavender Fragrance". With the project, it is aimed to introduce local products to the visitors who come to the city for cultural tourism through ecotourism. "The project is a good win for Safranbolu and Karabuk" Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Çetin Ayvalık told Anadolu Agency that the project, which was signed about 2 weeks ago, will be the beginning of a different work that will bring the concept of ecotourism to Safranbolu and Karabük. Stating that they will implement the project in the Saffron Garden with Lavender Fragrance, Ayvalık said, "It is a project based on education and employment. We are establishing 3 workshops within the scope of the project. The most striking of these will be a gastronomy workshop. We will introduce our local products and local dishes, especially the saffron we produce here. Our visitors who come to our gastronomy workshop will both have a good time at various workshops and plant various products." Expressing that they are also planning to establish an industrial kitchen in the area within the scope of the project, Ayvalık said, "We aim to have a presentation area in this as well. We are establishing a training workshop in the same area here. This training workshop will include a children's training workshop and a handicraft workshop for adults. We will build 3 separate sections within a single campus area here." Ayvalık stated that an agricultural workshop will also be established and continued as follows: "We will build a 30 square meter glass greenhouse. In this glass greenhouse, we will set up benches completely independent of the soil. Here we will have workshops for rooting lavender and other herbaceous and medicinal plants. At the same time, we will be able to show our visitors different types such as succulents and geraniums, which can be easily rooted, in our training areas, and we will have established a beautiful system where we can both show them and make them buy. We would like to introduce the local varieties, mainly herbal and medicinal plants grown in the region, to the visitors coming to our city for cultural tourism through ecotourism." Emphasizing that the project is a win for the region, Ayvalık added that they have an 18-month process ahead of them, but that they aim to cultivate it by the autumn when the saffron harvest is made. Governor Fuat Gürel stated that the aim of the project was to increase the saffron harvest, to produce it in a modern way, to offer it for sale and to increase its use in the field of gastronomy, and noted that they attach great importance to the project in this sense.