THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Tahir Göktepe, Chairperson of Türkiye’s Mediterranean province Antalya’s district Alanya Chamber of Agriculture and tropical fruit producer Mustafa Ezici along with businessman Mirbey Adam, who has been exporting fresh vegetables and fruits in Germany for nearly 40 years, evaluated the recent situation and how Türkiye could turn its potential into an advantage.
ENHANCED INTEREST IN TURKISH PRODUCTION FROM EUROPE…
Drawing attention to Germany, where the effects of the war were felt most, Tahir Göktepe said: “There is a 30-40 percent loss of production in the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium. When production fell in Europe, chain markets turned to producers in Türkiye to close the gap. Contracts have already been signed. The market owner, whom we could not reach for a year, now wants products from us. In so much that he says, ‘Don’t give goods to anyone.’ If we make good use of this winter, we can easily boost our fruit and vegetable exports of 3.5 billion dollars to 10 billion dollars. In addition, It is not difficult at all to achieve 3.5 billion dollars of exports in only these two items in 2 years.”
A FORMULA FOR EXTENDED TRAILER TAILS…
Pointing out to the long TIR queues at the border, Mustafa Ezici explained, “Normally, a vegetable that comes from Türkiye reaches Germany in 5 days. Due to Bulgaria’s arbitrary practices, the exporter becomes a victim. Bulgaria is a serious obstacle to us. For this, the Black Sea road should be opened. The Constanta (Romania) line is very important in this sense. The Ro-Ro ship departing from Karasu arrives in Constanta in 8 hours.”
“This is the only way that Bulgaria’s monopoly might be broken and it provides great support for agricultural exports. Vegetables and fruits from Türkiye are on the market shelves in 2 days instead of 5 days in Europe. Türkiye and Romania agreed on this issue. There was a huge crowding due to the war. This route will be used soon. However, the number of ships should be increased,” Mirbey Adam added…
