THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli said that they closely followed 50 products especially during the coronavirus period.
Pakdemirli stated, “We are following all of these products’ production, harvest, exports, imports and taxes, etc. But too much onion used to be exported, its prices turned to normal while we restricted the export of it. We did the same with lemon. If we open the export of lemon today, the price will increase to 30 TL. We will not allow it to be exported at least until September.”
Expressing that they were just about to enter the harvest period at the time of emerging pandemic, Pakdemirli said, “Turkey is a country which can be self-sufficient in agriculture. Do not worry. Not only we’ve done studies for the harvest time, we have planned for the plantings of next year.”
Normalisation process…
“In addition, we did not want to accumulate and queue in the markets, as in other countries. Before we started the pandemic, we gathered representatives of the retail and logistics industry and asked for necessary preparations. They did their work gradually. During this period, 4 times of demand occurred, but there was no problem. It was the logistics part at an important point, but we did not have any problems in this. We are now in the normalisation process. There is no problem at the moment, we are planning ahead. We started planting in every field we found with the instruction of our President,” Pakdemirli noted.
No problem in meat and milk…
Stressing that the producers and wholesalers should act with national stance, Pakdemirli added, “Our inspections continue. Sometimes product prices increase when the logistics chain is broken. In this period, inspections are continuing strictly in order not to put a burden on our citizens. The dollar brings an indirect cost. Since the feeds are imported, this is reflected in milk and milk products when the feed is increased. There is no problem. There was a 20 percent increase in feed prices due to foreign exchange. We have no problems with red meat. Currently, the cost of slaughtering is around 36.5 TL. Our manufacturer is making money.”
Treasury lands suitable for cultivation…
Reminding that they met with the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Pakdemirli said, “We got positive results. We will meet with 940 districts and ask them to report treasury lands suitable for cultivation. In addition to the existing agricultural areas, we will also evaluate these areas.”
First place again…
With the agricultural gross national product of 48 billion dollars, we came second after France last year, but this year we took our first place by exporting 2 billion dollars more. All fields that can still be planted have been transferred to digital media. All our products are designed to have 940 districts in Turkey. We will increase our production with the cultivation of these areas. Even USA, they could not do this, we want to succeed as a ministry. When we achieve this, we want to open up a little more with France and reinforce our leadership.
