THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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In 2019, the pandemic process that affected the whole world changed production habits as well as consumption. While we see that every digital sector from automotive to the service sector has grown, some sectors have been recognised and their importance has been understood. Agriculture and food were at the top of these. The pandemic, which increased the needs for food, especially for healthy products, enabled both global and local sectors to focus on this area. One of these is Alarko Holding.
Although Alarko Holding, one of Türkiye’s most established groups, focuses on industry, energy and construction, agriculture was the sector where the fastest steps were taken. Melike Koçoğlu is the head of Alarko’s agriculture branch. We talked to Koçoğlu, General Manager of Alarko Agriculture Group, about the group’s targets in the coming period and the reasons for the rapid step.
“As Alarko Agriculture Group,” Koçoğlu said, “We aim to take part in the entire value chain in the fields of agriculture and food with production investments in 4 main sectors: technological greenhouse, seed, fertiliser and food.”
Grows through acquisitions…
Stating that Alarko Holding has defined ‘agriculture’ as a strategic sector since 2023 and entered this new business line with the geothermal greenhouses it purchased in the province Afyon, Koçoğlu said, “We reached our first target of 500 decares of greenhouses at the end of 2023 with the greenhouses we purchased and established ourselves. In our factory established by our Palmira Agro company in Çankırı region, which will be operational at the end of May 2024, we will produce 12 thousand tonnes of micro granule fertiliser annually; we will also carry out seed breeding and production with our Genseed company operating in Antalya province, which joined our group in the last quarter of 2023.”
One of the rapid steps taken by Alarko Holding was the dried fruit and vegetable production company in Tarsus district of Mersin province, which was acquired in the second half of last year.
Pointing out that they plan to move the facility to Konya’ Ereğli district and expand this business, whose main target channel is B2B and industrial customers, under the name Alarko Gıda Sanayi AŞ (Alarko Food Industry Inc.), Koçoğlu gave the following information:
“We evaluated the potential of our country in the field of geothermal energy, different climatic conditions and other environmental factors and decided to carry out our greenhouse activities in three main regions, Afyon, Denizli and Eskişehir provinces. With our Alsera Geothermal Agriculture company, we are establishing high-tech greenhouses in suitable areas with access to geothermal energy in different regions of Türkiye”
Alarko’s most important product at the moment is tomato. Indicating that currently, the export rate of tomatoes produced in their greenhouses is around 60 percent, Koçoğlu noted, “We export to EU countries such as the Netherlands and France along with the Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar and Kuwait. In the near future, we will start the production of different fresh fruits and vegetables such as pepper group, aubergine, strawberry and blueberry.”
500 million dollar investment in Kazakhstan…
The greenhouse size that the group will reach by the end of 2024 with the investment is 2000 decares. This figure will reach 5000 decares across the country in 2028. Kazakhstan operation will be added to this. Highlighting that they will implement agriculture on 5 thousand decares in Kazakhstan, Koçoğlu added, “Our investments in Türkiye will reach a size of 500 million dollars. We have an investment target of 500 million dollars in Kazakhstan within 5 years. Within 5 years, we will put into operation agricultural investments totalling around 1 billion dollars. For now, the share of agriculture in Alarko Group will exceed 25 percent. We plan to be one of the 10 largest agricultural companies in the world.”
By Kerim Ülker,
Source: www.dunya.com
