THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Sencer Solakoğlu, Chairperson of Dairy, Meat and Cattle Breeders’ Association (TÜSEDAD), criticized the fact that the Food Committee has been taken from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and placed under the control of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and that the milk price was not increased on the grounds that “it causes a hike in feed prices”.
Pointing out that the industry has reached a dead end, Solakoğlu said, “However, feed prices continue to surge because they depend on the dollar. In other words, there is a management that cannot understand the difference between causality and correlation. This is a real threat.”
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which started work on 29 March to detect the presence of cattle, did not make a statement even after 3 months. TÜSEDAD Chair Solakoğlu evaluated the work of the ministry, the fact that the Food Committee has been taken from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the developments in the meat and milk sector to ANKA News Agency.
Stating that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry did not want to reveal the low numbers as a result of the animal counts, Solakoğlu noted, “I think they are silent because the prices will suddenly increase incredibly. But the information I received from the inside is that there is a cut more than what they expected.”
“NO ANIMALS IN TURKIYE’S LARGEST FARMS”
Solakoğlu explained, “One of the leading meat traders I talked to said: ‘We have been doing this business for three generations, we have not encountered such a situation in our history. There is a tremendous recession in the meat market. There is a serious decrease in demand.’ But there is an interesting situation. There is no animal in the market. So when you look at the 5 largest farms of the country, there are farms with a capacity of 20 thousand. As I know, there are 3 thousand 600 animals inside. So the capacity utilization rates have fallen below 20 percent currently in large farms.”
Indicating that the broodstock have been fattened, especially in the Eastern Anatolia Region, Solakoğlu added, “As a matter of fact, the reality that those animals will not give birth shows that Turkiye will definitely have a problem with meat. We had already predicted that it would rise to the around 100-120 liras, but the enormous increase in inflation and such a decrease in purchasing power were not predictable. So when you look at it, we observe that there is a 33 percent decrease in the sausage market and 62 percent fall in the roasting (meat) market as well.”
