THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Established in 2009 and now boasting 150 members, the Association of Packaged Milk and Dairy Products Manufacturers (ASÜD) is a non-governmental organisation representing the leading companies and producers in Türkiye’s milk and dairy products industry; drawing strength from this representation, it guides the sector’s development.
Our key priorities include facilitating communication and coordination among businesses in the Turkish dairy sector, supporting the sustainable growth of the dairy sector, enhancing international competitiveness, strengthening public–private sector collaboration, safeguarding public health and bridging the gap between academia and the sector through scientific knowledge.
The dairy sector has a broad scope of influence, ranging from rural development to industrial production, and from exports to public health. For this reason, we position our association not merely as a sector representative, but also as a strategic stakeholder in the food system.
The Turkish dairy sector has demonstrated steady growth in recent years, both in terms of production and foreign trade. Dairy and dairy product exports, which stood at 390.6 million dollars in 2023 and rose to 489.5 million dollars in 2024, reached 523.3 million dollars in 2025, marking a 6.9 percent increase compared to the previous year. Cheeses account for nearly half (236 million dollars) of exports in 2025. Looking at the product-based breakdown, cheeses (45.1 percent), whey products (14.9 percent), skimmed milk powder (14.7 percent) and ice cream (13.9 percent) form the backbone of exports (88.6 percent).
In terms of target market distribution, countries such as Iraq (17.1 percent), Algeria (8 percent), Saudi Arabia (5.2 percent), the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (5.2 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (5.2 percent) stand out, with 40.7 percent of total exports going to these top five countries. In this context, another of our objectives is market diversification. Alongside traditional markets, strategic expansion into high-potential markets such as Asia and the US is ongoing, with dairy products currently being exported to nearly 100 countries.
Furthermore, the sector is attracting attention not only for its export figures but also for its structural transformation. Raw milk production in Türkiye reached 22.5 million tonnes as of 2024, with 57.7 percent of this processed by the industry. This data is significant for us; the sector has now shifted its focus from mere production to processing, standardisation and value creation.
Looking at livestock numbers, by 2025 the total number of large livestock (cattle + buffalo) in the country reached 17.7 million head, whilst the small livestock population (sheep + goats) reached 57.9 million head. There has been a steady surge in both cattle (16.6 million in 2023) and small ruminant (52.4 million in 2023) numbers since 2023. This trend indicates that the growth momentum in the livestock production infrastructure has strengthened, particularly over the last two years.
One of the most important agenda items for Türkiye’s dairy sector is to shift growth from quantity to quality. In this context, one of our key objectives is the production of value-added products. The surging exports of cheese, ice cream and functional products clearly demonstrate the sector’s direction of transformation.
Harmonisation and integration with the European Union have been a key objective for which ASÜD has worked intensively since its inception. The European Union is not merely a market for the sector, but also a benchmark for quality and standards. The fact that 44 of our production facilities in the country are EU-approved is a concrete indicator of this harmonisation.
The “Water Sustainability in the Turkish Dairy Sector: Efficiency, Risks and Vulnerabilities Project”, which we launched in 2019 and completed in 2021, was one of the first steps we took towards this aim. As part of the EU Civil Society Dialogue, the project assessed water risks and projected the potential impacts of water risks across the value chain.
As ASÜD, we contribute to the sector’s development not merely through rhetoric, but through concrete projects. The webinars, sector-specific training, university collaborations and regulatory initiatives we organise under our Sectoral Development Programmes are the most significant examples of this…
By Harun Çallı,
Chairman of the Association of Packaged Milk and Dairy Products Manufacturers (ASÜD)…
Source: www.tgdf.org.tr
