Turkey: Tea harvest continues during holiday

By Fikret Delal

RIZE (AA) - Tea producers in northern Turkey continued their harvest on Sunday, which marked the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, the three-day festival following the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Turkey has imposed a four-day round-the-clock holiday curfew as part of its measures against the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed over 4,200 lives in the country.

The Provincial General Hygiene Council, however, allowed the tea producers to travel between their fields and homes.

This allowed the producers to continue harvesting, after which the tea will be sold to warehouses.

Some 16,000 tea farmers, about 8,000 of them from Istanbul, came to the Black Sea province of Rize as of Sunday, according to Kemal Ceber, the province's governor.

As many as 6,000 of them (one person from each household) were tested for the virus as a precaution, he added.

The screenings, carried out by 110 health professionals in 207 neighborhoods and 347 villages, 11 districts, and the city center, will continue on the second and third days of the Eid.

* Writing by Havva Kara Aydin in Ankara