THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM) General Director Dr. Nevzat Birişik said that the seed sector has grown by 8 to 9 times in the last 15-20 years.
Dr. Birişik said, “Turkey is not obliged to seed imports, if we close off all our borders, we can even grow all the products inside we need.”
Dr. Birişik also stated self-sufficiency of the countries is the subject that often come into question today, meanwhile Turkey is a self-sufficient country in terms of producing food and nutrition.
Indicating that considering a person’s daily 1800-2600 calories consumption per day, Dr. Birişik noted, “Turkey has a crop and livestock capability to meet this amount. However if the question is to meet the needs of industry, then to make exports and get an income, in this case no country is self-sufficient across the world.”
“Therefore, the most important issue we need to do in this regard is how we can make an optimal production by existing natural resources and geographic opportunities and how we can put this into trade,” Dr. Birişik added.
“Thus, there is no possibility to close off the borders. But Turkey is a net agricultural exporter even in this situation. If we take agriculture and food into account, Turkey is a country which sells more than both it produces in value and the amount in total,” Dr. Birişik concluded…
