A powerful “supercell” storm that swept across southern Türkiye over the weekend has caused extensive damage to pistachio orchards and farmland, raising concerns over agricultural losses and potential market repercussions in one of the country’s most important pistachio-producing regions.
The violent weather system — marked by intense rainfall, hail and strong winds — disrupted daily life in Gaziantep and neighboring provinces, uprooting mature pistachio trees and damaging thousands of hectares of cultivated land across Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı said teams from the state-backed agricultural insurance body TARSİM were continuing field inspections to assess the full extent of the destruction.
Agricultural representatives on the ground described the damage as severe, particularly for pistachio trees currently in their fruit-clustering phase — a critical stage for the upcoming harvest.
Union of Turkish Chambers of Agriculture board member Ahmet Eyyüpoğlu said at least 3,000 decares of pistachio fields in Şanlıurfa had been hit, noting that the province alone accounts for nearly 45 percent of Türkiye’s pistachio production. He also reported losses in wheat and lentil fields.
In Gaziantep’s Karkamış district, local agriculture chamber head İdris Bozkurt said all 98,000 decares of pistachio farmland in the district had been affected, warning that “the harvest of the next two seasons is gone.”
Farmers said some villages reported total crop losses, while others sustained around 30 percent damage. Broken fruit clusters and damaged buds were among the most common impacts. Around 70 percent of the region’s agricultural land is reportedly insured.
The storm also struck parts of Elazığ, where agricultural officials reported damage across 50,000 decares of lentils, chickpeas, barley and wheat.
The losses may also ripple into the food sector. Pistachios are a key ingredient in Baklava, and industry representatives warned that speculative price hikes could emerge if supply tightens, although producers say it is too early to determine the storm’s long-term impact on prices.
