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“The purchasing policy that supports the farmer has increased our chickpea production”
Turkish Grain Board (TMO) General Manager Ahmet Güldal said that Turkey increasingly has become a net exporter each year.
Stating that legumes, including chickpeas, are among the main food sources, Güldal noted that these products also stand out with their employment and export potential.
Reminding that TMO was assigned to purchase pulses within the scope of the President’s Decree in 2018, Güldal said, “The production implemented by TMO in line with the studies of our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the purchasing policy that supports the farmer has increased our chickpea production. We purchased 96 thousand tonnes of chickpeas from our producer in 2018, 234 thousand tonnes in 2019 and 6 thousand tonnes in 2020. As TMO, we exported 22 thousand tonnes of chickpeas in 2019. In 2020, we used our stocks mostly in domestic market regulation due to epidemic disease.”
Pointing out that they have come across negative evaluations in the press that chickpeas are imported from time to time, Güldal added:
“Our country is a net exporter in the chickpeas at an increasing rate every year since 2018. So far, we do chickpea imports but by the private sector, 10 millimeters and above, a kind of special-purpose consumption is imported high-caliber chickpeas. This is a process that occurs under free market conditions, actually there is no deficit in chickpeas. As a matter of fact, the private sector realized 117 thousand tonnes of exports against 93 thousand tonnes of chickpea imports in 2018, 127 thousand tonnes of exports against 13 thousand tonnes of imports in 2019 and 134 thousand tonnes of exports against 19 thousand tonnes of chickpeas in 2020.”
