Izmir (Smyrna) City has been an historic heritage, and port city for ages to several civilizations so far to modern-days, and currently is the 3rd most crowded city and one of the major port cities of Turkey in the West in the Aegean Area. Besides being a historical heritage to different civilizations; Izmir City has a special place in the History of Dried Fruits and Agricultural Products Trades in the old days and even today !
Izmir was one of the small coastal towns of Western Anatolia in the earlier 16th century. Towards the end of the century, it used to meet Istanbul’s need of dried fruits and nuts , that’s why it had grown twice. Raisins, figs, pear, almonds, pomegranate, chestnut, dried apricots and some other types of dried fruits were the most leading transported from Izmir to İstanbul. This helped to Izmir to expand its boundaries in trade.
After a while, a pier was constructed and made Izmir more attractive for commercial vessels. The Ottoman products were flowing to Izmir from all seaports and production centers and some were changing hands in domestic trade, while the bulk of such products exported, but the high volumes of the trade brought some problems to Izmir like unbalanced price adjustments, lack of proper statistics to determine demand and supply etc.
In order to solve these problems, as first ‘Commercial Assembly’ was established in 1850 in Izmir and ‘Chamber of Commerce‘ followed this in 1885.
Apart from the Izmir Chamber of Commerce , the English, the French, the Dutch and the Italians had their own chambers of commerce in Izmir.These organizations worked like a ‘club’ to bring the merchants of the country together , independent of the chamber of commerce in the Ottoman Empire. Then the Empire was realized the first legal arrangements in 1886. Though not much functional, these arrangements tried to set the commercial life in the city in order.
The arguments to establish a modern commodity exchange in Izmir based on a legal status and conforming to some rules were brought forward in the early 1890s. After determining the place and all preparations, Izmir Commodity Exchange ( Nisli Haci Ali Efendi’s) was opened with a ceremony on Monday 13th June, 1892.
Source: The History Of Izmir Commodity Exchange from 1891 To The Present
In our region, still protecting the importance of the production, process and export of dried fruits and leading position also today, our company BIZEKS Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. continues its management and marketing activities in the district called “ Gumruk” in exactly the same location with those buildings seen on above photos that the Old Harbour and Commodity Exchange of Izmir is located in the past and processing activities in ITOB Organized Industrial Zone which is one of the most sophisticated industrial areas.
