Farmer Distributed Onions for Free, Citizens Flocked to the Field

A farmer in the district of Kumlu in Hatay left the onions in his 80-acre field, where he couldn’t get the desired yield, for the benefit of the public. When the news spread that the onions, which reach a market price of 25 TL, were being distributed for free, citizens rushed to the field with their vehicles. With the arrival of spring in the fertile lands of Hatay’s Amik Plain, harvesting of various products had already begun. Despite the harvesting season approaching in the 80-acre field owned by the Uygun family in the Cumhuriyet neighborhood of Kumlu district of Hatay, the onions did not reach the desired size and quality.

Farmer: ‘We Left It for the People Who Came with Cars and Tractors as a Favor’

Expressing their intention to distribute the onions to the public as a favor due to the lack of sufficient quality, 21-year-old Mehmet Ali Uygun said, ‘We incurred losses from the onions, it didn’t make any profit. Not even enough to cover the workers’ wages. The field price of the onion is 5 TL, while it is around 25 TL in supermarkets. We didn’t incur losses last year, we managed to sell somehow. But as you can see, this year, we left it as a favor to the people. All the citizens entered the field, there are even sheep. Since the onions didn’t turn out as we wanted, we left it for the people as a favor. This field has an area of 80 acres. We left it as a favor to the people who came with cars and tractors,’ he said.

A citizen named Dudu Dönmez stated that the price of onions in the market is 25 TL and that the onions in the field were distributed for free due to being damaged. Celil İnal mentioned that the owner of the field left the onions for free to plant new crops and that citizens rushed to the field to meet their winter needs. Mehmet Dertsiz from the Kırıkhan district said they came to gather onions and that they will grow their own onions this year.