THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
Exporting sectors, which supply their inputs with dollars and realize their exports in Euro, have been going through difficult times recently due to the negative course of the Euro/Dollar parity.
The euro/dollar parity, which was at the level of 1.18 in July 2021, has been following a course of 0.99 in recent days.
The fisheries and animal products sector, which is the largest export market of European countries and whose inputs are all in dollars, especially fish feed, is another export sector that is adversely affected by the change in Euro/dollar parity.
The fact that the euro/dollar parity has dropped to the level of 0.99 and that it can be seen at 0.95 causes a worried expectation in the Turkish aquaculture sector.
Bedri Girit, Chairperson of the Aegean Fisheries and Animal Products Exporters’ Association, stated that although the exports of the Turkish aquaculture sector surged by 33.5 percent in euro terms in the January-July period of 2022, it remained at the level of 20 percent in dollar terms. He emphasized that it is dollar indexed and that the current situation negatively affects the competitiveness of the sector.
Underlining that 65 percent of the total expenses in aquaculture are feed expenditures, Girit said, “The most important raw material of the feed used in aquaculture is fish meal and oil. Since the fish meal and oil obtained in Türkiye is not enough to meet the feed needs, there is an import obligation for these products. This is also provided in dollars. In 2021, we imported approximately 202.6 thousand tonnes of fish meal and 91.5 thousand tonnes of fish oil.”
“Seven of the top 10 countries of our exports are European countries. The fact that our inputs are in dollars and our revenues are in euros, caused the sector to lose its profits. As exporting sectors, we have great difficulties in accessing finance. We expect the rediscount credits to be opened as soon as possible,” he added…
