THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
Aegean Exporters’ Associations (EIB) organised a Buyer Delegation Organisation for the dried fruit sector from Japan, which imports 65 billion dollars of food annually, on 24-25 August 2023 through the Ministry of Trade.
Aegean Exporters’ Associations Organic Products and Sustainability Coordinator Mehmet Ali Işık, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters’ Association, said: “On the first day of our procurement delegation programme, where Japan’s leading buyers were invited, 4 Japanese companies and 14 Turkish exporters from the dried fruit sector held nearly 60 bilateral business meetings. On the second day, visits were made to the facilities of our dried fruit exporters. In the first 7 months of 2023, we exported 349 million dollars to Japan with a hike of 5 percent in Türkiye in general. 194 million dollars of these exports constitute 55 percent of our exports of agricultural products.”
Stating that dried fruit is one of the sectors they are strong in the Japanese market, Işık explained, “Our seedless raisin exports to Japan, which started on 1 September 2022 in the 2022/23 season, amounted to 17 million dollars with an increase of 34 percent in quantity and 33 percent in value and we exported 9.8 million dollars of dried figs to Japan with an acceleration of 6 percent in quantity in the period until 7 October 2022-19 August 2023. Between 1 August 2022-31 July 2023, we have exports of 3 million dollars in dried apricots with an increase of 8 percent in quantity and 28 percent in value.”
“We have the potential to increase to 1 billion dollars”
According to 2023 January-July figures, 97 percent of the exports from the Aegean Region to Japan were carried out on agriculture, Mehmet Ali Işık continued his words as follows:
“In the first 7 months, we have a total of 69 million dollars of exports from the Aegean Region to Japan, 67 million dollars of which are agricultural products. With the support of the Ministry of Trade, we have been organising the national participation of Foodex Japan Food Fair, Japan’s largest food fair, for more than 20 years. For 7 years, we have been carrying out our Turquality Project covering the Far East countries of South Korea, Japan and China. We want to further strengthen our ties with Japan in line with the Ministry of Trade’s Growth Strategy in Far Markets.”
“Türkiye has an annual organic food production of 1.6 million tonnes. Japan’s annual food imports of 65 billion dollars and its demand for quality and healthy food is very important for our Turkish organic sector. The Aegean Region is the leader in the production and export of organic products in the country. Since 2018, we have ramped up our food exports to Japan by 58 percent as of our country and our food exports to Japan from EIB surged by 20 percent,” Işık added.
“We have the potential to expand our food exports to Japan to 500 million dollars in the short term and 1 billion dollars in the long term,” Işık concluded…
