THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Ahmet Hamdi Gürdoğan, Vice President of the Eastern Black Sea Exporters Association (DKİB), said that the number of cages in the seas has soared in the last 5-6 years.
Pointing out that especially in the last 5-6 years, the number of cages in the sea has started to surge in Trabzon province, Gürdoğan said, “It is done with a spike of more than one hundred per cent every year. People without technical infrastructure should not do fishing. Because when we reduce the quality of the product, we should think that we can keep it in our hands. For this reason, with a certain control and clustering models, we can build salmon exports on much more solid foundations and increase these figures to 2.5-3 billion dollars in the future, as in the Norwegian example.”
“However, the biggest obstacle in front of this export is the salmon that is not grown in the sea but grown in the dam lakes in the inland regions and exported as Black Sea Salmon. The lake salmon grown in these lakes also comes back when it is put on the market as Black Sea salmon. Therefore, it also affects our salmon exports and reduces our quality. For this reason, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry should not allow the export of salmon that does not stay in the sea for 7 months,” he explained.
“As in fresh fruit exports, I would like to emphasise the importance of ensuring traceability in the growth of the product, because the water of the Black Sea and the period of stay in the sea create the flavour and added value in the meat of that fish,” he added.
Highlighting that there is no odour in sea salmon, he concluded, “But when they buy lake salmon, it is much lower in terms of number due to the low odour and redness in the meat and at the same time, when it is sent to the domestic market as Turkish salmon, Black Sea salmon, it is a very bad example for Türkiye’s salmon exports. For this, we invite the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to duty.”
