**4. Apricot production of the world**

Despite we observe rich distribution of apricot through the world, the commercial production areas are limited. The majority of production is done in Mediterranean countries and also in Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Algeria, Ukraine and USA (Romero et al. 2003).

Fig. 3. World apricot production from 1961 to 2009 (FAOSTAT, 2011)

Analyzing the data by years from 1961 until 2009, we observe that the amount of production in the world have increased on a regular basis. During the last 50 years 1.317.607 tons per year production reached about 3.728.083 tons (Fig 3). Despite to this increase in the 50 years amount of production is actually low due to the limited capabilities of adaptation to different environments, limited numbers of variety, self-incompatibility, frost damage, susceptibility to Sharka and Monilinia (*Sclerotinia laxa* Aderh et., Ruhl.).

Turkey is the leading country at the production of apricots. Turkey with its rich genetic resources and high quality dried apricot cultivars has reached to monopolistic position in the world. In recent years, the farming of dried apricot has increased in China, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, too. Especially the city of Malatya in Turkey (Fig 4) and the surrounding areas of the city provides more than half of production of the country. For this reason, the city, Malatya is called also the apricot capital of the world (Asma, 2007). Apricots have been traditionally a part of life and as a symbol of the city at every point

Fig. 4. Malatya province where is the most apricot produce in the world.

Fig. 5. Apricot is a symbol in Malatya.

Fig. 4. Malatya province where is the most apricot produce in the world.

Fig. 5. Apricot is a symbol in Malatya.

(Fig 5). Malatya Apricot Research Station established in the city in 1937 played an important role at the development of apricot farming in the city (Fig 6). The station has a rich collection of 285 apricot accessions of different eco-geographical groups. It is third behind the Nikitsky Botanic Garden in Ukraine and Central Asian Experimental Station of the Institute of Plant Industry in Uzbekistan (Fig 7). The institution host thousands of seedlings obtained from constantly maintained crosses. In 2010, Malatya produced 661.000 tons of fresh apricot. Of the that production 101.000 tons dried apricots were obtained (TurkStat, 2010) (Fig 8).

Fig. 6. Apricot Research Station (1937)

Fig. 7. A view of Apricot Genetic Resources Collection Orchard in Apricot Research Station in Malatya / Turkey

Fig. 8. Best apricot competition in Malatya and new apricot cultivar Alkaya for table and dried consumption

Apricot cultivation in the Mediterranean countries generally base on early and middle season table apricots and Spain, Italy and France have authority in the trade of table apricots. USA, South Africa and Australia are producer of dried and flesh apricots. However production of USA decreases sharply.

Apricot rich countries has plenty of genetic diversity due to the production many years with seed. This increase shows that the studies need to be done in apricot. Indeed, in recent years, big, flashy, red-checked with orange flesh and resistant apricot variety has been the target of new development. Especially in Europe and the USA breeding programs released big new cultivars with cheek color of red but because of the low brix and poor flavor the release failed to succeed in the marked.

One of the main priority of apricot breeding programs in the mid of 1990s was to develop cultivars resistant to the late spring frost (Layne et al. 1996; Bassi & Sansavini, 1988). However, unlike almond breeding (Vargas & Romero, 2001), this aim was failed to succeed

Fig. 8. Best apricot competition in Malatya and new apricot cultivar Alkaya for table and

Apricot cultivation in the Mediterranean countries generally base on early and middle season table apricots and Spain, Italy and France have authority in the trade of table apricots. USA, South Africa and Australia are producer of dried and flesh apricots. However

Apricot rich countries has plenty of genetic diversity due to the production many years with seed. This increase shows that the studies need to be done in apricot. Indeed, in recent years, big, flashy, red-checked with orange flesh and resistant apricot variety has been the target of new development. Especially in Europe and the USA breeding programs released big new cultivars with cheek color of red but because of the low brix and poor flavor the release

One of the main priority of apricot breeding programs in the mid of 1990s was to develop cultivars resistant to the late spring frost (Layne et al. 1996; Bassi & Sansavini, 1988). However, unlike almond breeding (Vargas & Romero, 2001), this aim was failed to succeed

dried consumption

production of USA decreases sharply.

failed to succeed in the marked.

(Demirtas et al. 2010). In the wild apricots and germplasm collections the lack of genotypes exhibiting resistance to the late spring frost was the main reason for this fail. But this failure was ignored by producer since apricot is high-profit production and good evaluation of adaptation studies (Occarso, 1977; Durie, 1988; Ogasanovic et al. 1991; Harsanyi, 1991; Ozvardar et al. 1991; Baktir et al. 1992; Bassi et al. 1995; Kaska et al. 1995; Egea et al. 1995; Audergon et al. 1995; Ayanoglu et al. 1995; Paydas et al. 1995; Draganescu & Cociu, 1997; Hofstee et al. 1997; Papanikolaou-Paulopoulo & Poulis, 1997; Yilmaz, 2002; Blanc et al. 2006).

One of the main goals breeding programs was to obtain varieties resistant to Monilinia [*Sclerotinia* (*Monilinia*) *laxa* Aderh et., Ruhl) (Cociu et al. 1991; Gulcan et al. 1994; Bassi et al. 1995; Bassi & Audergon, 2006; Guerriero et al. 2006; Nicotra et al. 2006; Acarsoy et al. 2011). Although this ended up with some success, economically important cultivars were not released into market. Using efficient fungusit prevented also Monilinia breeding programs.

All of these germplasm used in breeding and molecular genetic studies in recent years drawn towards different targets. The most important of these is Sharka (*Plum pox virus*) disease, unfortunately, which caused great losses (Lopez-Moya et al. 2000; Cambra et al. 2006).

In addition, problems related to self-incompatibility became main problem after Sharka, in terms of ensuring the efficiency of production. In this context, the presence of *S* alleles on behalf of researchers to understand the mechanism of conflict directed to this point.
