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Figure 5.20 Orange production as a % of total citrus output in northern
Cyprus, 1975-1990.
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
0 \ 0 \ 0 \ C T \ 0 \ C N O \ O S O N O \ O N O >
Source: "Statistical Yearbooks", 1978-1990 (Agriculture Section) "State" Planning Organisation, north Nicosia.
Düring the transition to proto-statehood a new government department, the Turkish-
Cypriot Department of Agriculture, provided services to protect agricultural
investment in the northern région of Cyprus, to utilise some of that investment for
foreign exchange purposes and to alleviate the monetary problems associated with
continued linkage to the Cyprus Pound. A new public company, Cypruvex, moved
in to directly manage citrus orchards. Between mid 1975 and 1976, vine producers
from the Paphos and Limassol région were resettled in the island's main citrus
growing area around Morphou. Despite the fact that by late 1974 the area was
largely cleared of its originai population, a new population was slow to be resettled,
partly as a conséquence of continued wrangling which prevented the remaining
40,000 Turkish-Cypriots from moving north until August 1975 ( 76 ); prior to this
there were largely no people to harvest or even irrigate and maintain the vast citrus
groves around Morphou (Giizelyurt). Between October and December 1974,
workers were imported on mass by the state (Turkey) from the Mersin area of
Turkey (where there were also orchards). Because of the season, these workers were
mainly employed as citrus pickers to salvage some foreign exchange earnings from
76 McDonald 1989. op. cit., p.20.
272