THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
Davut Er, Chairman of Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters’ Association, said that olives are the fruit of poor soils and most of the olive trees that grow in arid lands across Turkey lack irrigation infrastructure.
Davut Er said, “In this regard, there is an urgent need for the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for drip irrigation systems, deep well drilling and electricity consumption. In addition, it is of great importance to increase the diesel and fertilizer support provided to our farmers. We have no doubt that 1 unit of support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will return to the country’s economy as 10 units within 10 years.”
Davut Er noted, “As the Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters’ Association, our primary goal is to increase the share of our high value-added packaged olive and olive oil exports. I would like to underline that in order to achieve this, it is very important to raise the Export Refunds Support in Agricultural Products.”
“The biggest reason why our country has a difficulty in competing with rival countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece in both table olives and olive oil exports is the cost difference against our country. In our country, the support provided to the exporter for ‘Export Refunds in Agricultural Products’ is very low.
“Currently, export refunds are provided up to 1600 TL per tonne for packaged olive oil exports and 630 TL for table olives,” Davut Er added.
Stating that in order to boost the competitiveness of Turkish olive oil, it is necessary to increase the annual 100-ton quota granted by the European Union for Turkish olive oil, Davut Er explained, “Within the framework of negotiations to update the Customs Union agreement between Turkey and the EU countries, we demand olive oil custom duty should be set to zero implemented by EU or we believe that obtaining a tax-free quota of at least 30,000 tonnes from the European Union for olive oil originating in our country would be very beneficial for the Turkish olive and olive oil sector.”
“The last point I want to touch on is, decreasing the VAT in olive oil, which is a health elixir and a source of healing, from 8 percent to 1 percent will rise domestic consumption and thus, health expenditures for heart, vascular and cancer diseases will decrease in the medium and long term and a reducing contribution to the pharmaceutical expenditure budget of our Ministry of Health will be provided,” Davut Er concluded…
