THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Stating that there has been an extreme year in grains, Ali Kırali, General Manager of the Turkish Mercantile Exchange (TMEX – TÜRİB), said, “The harvest is good, our warehouses are full.”
Regarding the effect of Turkish Grain Board (TMO) on the grain market, Kırali said, “TMO, which has been putting its weight on the market for two years due to the pandemic and then the Russia-Ukraine War, is almost the Central Bank of this market with its financing power. Intervention purchases are not market disruptors, but they can bring the price to where they want.”
Turkey Mercantile Exchange, where the first trading gong rang on 26 July 2019, is celebrating its 4th anniversary. TMEX General Manager Ali Kırali came together with members of the press with the organisation of the Turkish Guild of Agricultural Journalists (TGAJ – TAGYAD).
TÜRİB’s goal is to diversify the products traded on the exchange!
Emphasizing the steps taken by TMEX since its establishment, Kırali noted that they have traded 17 products, mainly wheat, barley and corn and that these three products constitute 90 percent of the transactions in TMEX.
Kırali indicated that the number of Electronic Warehouse Receipt (EWR) investors reached 200 thousand and that the capacity of licensed warehouses, whose number approached 250, doubled in 4 years and explained, “The storage capacity, which was 4 million tonnes when TME started its operations, reached 9.2 million tonnes as of July 2023 and also reached the capacity to store a quarter of Türkiye’s grain yield. Approximately a quarter of the grain traded in the country is also traded in TMEX. Being able to store one-fourth of the grain yield is a very important capacity, but we need to take it even higher.”
Pointing out that they are targeting a transaction volume of 95 billion liras this year, Kırali informed that a total transaction volume of 133 billion liras was reached in the Mercantile Exchange in 4 years and that 33 million tonnes of products changed hands through 835 thousand transactions.
“TMO is the Central Bank of the market”
Reminding that it is essential to improve production planning in strategic products such as cereals, which are worth gold and that the work of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in this direction is very important, TMEX General Manager Kırali gave the following answer to the question of whether the TMO’s purchase price is above the free market price has a ‘market distorting’ effect:
“TMO has bought everything for food security for two years, first due to the pandemic and then due to the war, imported and subsidised the sale. The risk could not be taken in case the Grain Corridor was cut. Therefore, I think it would do the same thing again if it went back.”
“TMO, which has been dominating the market for two years, is almost the Central Bank of this market with its financing power. Intervention purchases are not market distorting, but it can bring the price where it wants with the power it has,” Kırali added…
