Cağdaş Piyancı, an electrical technician living in Denizli, has started producing mussel farming nets, used in the production of mussels imported by Turkey from New Zealand and Spain, and is now exporting them primarily to Spain, as well as Italy and Morocco. Originally working in textiles after his electrical technician career in Denizli, Piyancı later became curious about how mussels, one of his favorite street foods, were produced.
After learning that mussel farming occurs in nets at sea and that these nets are only produced in New Zealand and Spain, with Turkey importing them from Spain, Piyancı took a trip to Spain to visit mussel farming facilities and inspect the nets. Upon returning to Turkey, he designed machines to produce mussel nets after a 2-year R&D process, successfully creating a machine that combines 96 cotton threads to produce the nets.
Piyancı established a facility and began exporting the nets produced from 10 different machines. He proudly stated that he is the sole producer of cotton thread mussel nets in Turkey, with a production capacity of 60 tons, now exporting nets to Spain as Turkey used to import from. Describing Turkey as the third country in the world to produce mussel nets after New Zealand and Spain, Piyancı mentioned that Turkish companies producing mussels meet their net requirements by importing from Spain. He added, “
I always wondered how mussels, a street food favorite, were produced. I learned that they are cultivated in nets submerged in the sea. I discovered that the nets used for mussel farming in our country also come from New Zealand and Spain. After visiting Spain and learning how this business is conducted, I returned to Denizli, researched for 2 years, then built the machines and started production. We have been producing for 3 years now, proudly being Turkey’s largest producer. We export 50% of our production, mainly to Spain, Italy, and Morocco. When we started this business, we were thinking, ‘How can we sell nets to Spain?’ and now we are proud to export.”