THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Press release…
Ankara- July 10, 2020 – Union of Turkish Agricultural Chambers (TZOB) President Şemsi Bayraktar said that advance payments left to preferance in agreements of production and purchasing tobacco between companies and tobacco.
Bayraktar said, “Tobacco producers are waiting for an advance. While advances given every year are not paid this year, tobacco producers fell in a difficult situation.”
Bayraktar stated that advance payments should be made compulsory to cover the production costs of farmers.
Pointing out that tobacco farming across Turkey, performed by small family farmers especially in the Aegean, Black Sea, Marmara, Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions, Bayraktar noted, “Our farmers can not profit from tobacco production and they have to give up producing. The migration of our farmers who could not make a profit by producing tobacco has caused the production to decrease compared to previous years.”
Explaining that tobacco production, which was 296 thousand tons in 1990, decreased to 70 thousand tons with a fall of 76.4 percent in 2019, Bayraktar added, “The number of our tobacco producer farmers, which was 405 thousand in 2002, decreased to 50 thousand in 2019. When we look at the foreign trade figures of 2019, we have an import of 544 million dollars, compared to 253 million dollars of exports. We made tobacco farmers from other countries to earn 291 million dollars in 2019.”
