THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
İzmir Commodity Exchange (İTB) Ordinary Assembly of December Meeting was held on Tuesday, December 28, 2021, via video conference and with the wide participation of Assembly members.
The agenda of the meeting was the evaluation of 2021 in terms of the agricultural sector, the current developments in the export of agricultural and food products and agricultural input prices, the review of 2021 from the point of İzmir Commodity Exchange, which is also celebrating the 130th anniversary of its establishment and İzmir Agricultural Technology Centre.
Barış Kocagöz, Assembly Chair of İzmir Commodity Exchange, said, “We always complain that input prices are expensive in agricultural production and that it raises our costs significantly. We are also right because the prices of our agricultural products in our country cannot remain competitive compared to our costs. If we have difficulties in reducing inflation, which is the biggest problem for our country, the main reason is the high costs in agricultural production.”
Kocagöz explained, “Because the producer, who could not earn money, gave up production and decreased production this time raises the price of that product and makes inflation uncontrollable. On the other hand, the volatility in foreign exchange this year caused great jumps in the prices of agricultural inputs, most of which are imported. In particular, fertilizer prices have soared so much that it has become impossible for the producer to buy from these figures. Fertilizer is just one example, huge hikes have been made to different imported main inputs agricultural production.”
Barış Kocagöz also made a proposal to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to establish a Department of Agricultural Production Inputs…
Sharing the idea that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry should seize this problem and establish the “Agricultural Production Inputs Department” for this purpose, Barış Kocagöz added, “This Department should monitor the price developments of the inputs sold to our producers in all kinds of agricultural production and assume the role of a surveillance who should be able to intervene. If there is a need for a discount as it is today, the relevant companies should be warned. Thus, penalties should also be applied to those who sell goods at excessive prices.”
