Elite Naturel was established in 1998 as a small family business. At that time, it had only six employees and three products, and it operated solely in the domestic market. After the owner conducted research in the United States, the potential in the organic market was recognized. The problems in Turkey’s agricultural sector were already known. Thus, the decision was made to take action. There were two major obstacles to overcome.

One of the challenges was that people did not understand the meaning and benefits of “organic.” However, over time, people began to learn what organic meant and started seeking organic products in their daily lives. We can say that Elite Naturel played a significant role in this process. The other issue was the difficulty in finding organic fruit. To address this, Elite Organic Projects (EOP) were launched.

Before the EOP, farmers did not understand the benefits and concepts of organic farming, even though it would be more profitable for them. Moreover, the income from farming was insufficient to sustain their land. This inadequacy, especially after the 1980s, led many rural inhabitants to migrate to cities, abandoning their land, vineyards, and orchards. However, cities mean chemicals, additives, colorants, and sweeteners—essentially artificiality. At Elite Naturel, we have always pursued naturalness and purity.

With the principle of “Transform the farmer, change the world,” we began establishing EOP and paid special attention to each farmer. We supported them with expertise from Kiwa BCS Öko-Garantie GmbH, an organic certification and inspection body based in Germany, and provided them with our knowledge. We traveled from village to village, offering free organic training and teaching farmers organic farming from A to Z. We then provided them with organic seeds, fertilizers, and all necessary materials, also supporting local producers. Additionally, we offered financial support by providing interest-free capital. For farmers in areas we could not reach, we invited them to join our program through ads in national newspapers. By presenting the EOP program to the government, we not only opened a channel for incentives but also obtained the necessary licenses for using state-owned land for organic farming. As a result, we managed to obtain organic certification for over four million square kilometers of conventional farming land. We added value to the products of the farmers in our project and made a small impact on their lives. By helping farmers feel financially more secure, we reduced migration rates in the project areas. This small family business grew into a large family, adding 10 cities, 18 projects, over 8,000 farmers, and more than 60,000 tons of organic fruit from over four million square meters of certified organic farming land.Our secret to success is providing service from soil to bottle. We manage the entire process ourselves, from planting seeds to bottling fruit juices. Our agricultural engineers frequently visit the fields to conduct inspections and tests. Kiwa BCS Öko Garantie also regularly visits our projects for inspections. We must obtain certification for the soil in our fields, every tree and fruit grown there, the juice extracted from these fruits, and the final bottled product. This means that every step we take is inspected. As a result, we have complete confidence in our products and can present them with assurance anywhere in the world.

There are four key points that make us a leading producer:

1. Having our own projects and contracted farmers ensures sustainability in terms of raw materials.

2. All of our lands, fruits, and bottled products are certified. From the batch number on the final product’s cap, we can trace which orchard the fruit inside the product came from. This provides us with traceability.

3. We establish this system in various locations across Turkey to ensure diversity, which provides us with flexibility.

4. By managing the entire process from field to bottle ourselves, we are able to offer competitive prices.

Our R&D department is constantly working on developing new products. Our chemists and food engineers follow global trends to discover new products. They continuously invent and add value to fruits in various ways. Our success comes from this excitement for innovation. We achieve excellence in our products through constant experimentation, learning from mistakes, and trying again. We strive to do everything possible with fruits.

We are continuously working to increase our market dominance and enter new markets. Although we currently export to over 30 countries, this number is increasing every year. Our target audience consists of active, urban individuals from the middle to upper social classes who are committed to healthy and high-quality living. Economic development is rapidly increasing the number of people in the middle to upper social classes. Unfortunately, this same economic development also necessitates greater attention to health. This means that our target audience is continuously growing.

We place special emphasis on social responsibility projects. Within the framework of our Fair Trade program, we have established a fund to support the education of children in EOP regions. We aim to contribute by building new classrooms, laboratories, sports, and cultural centers in schools.

At the same time, we have launched the “Save Plant, Save Earth” program to ensure that children grow up to be as environmentally conscious as we are. Together with the children, we plant saplings bearing their names and monitor their growth as they mature into trees. This way, the children not only develop a sense of responsibility but also become aware of the challenges involved in growing a tree.