THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
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Turkish Seed Growers Association (TÜRKTOB) President and Ornamental Plants Producers Sub- Union (SÜSBİR) Vice President Savaş Akcan said that using of Turkish ornamental plants in ‘Nation gardens’ along with environmental and landscape works of municipalities at least 70 percent in value carries great importance for them.
“In addition to being labour-intensive and subsistence source of 2 million people in 2018, Turkish ornamental plants sector has a 6 billion TL production value” Akcan noted, “We have also reached 71 million dollars in exports which constitues a record. Meanwhile imports decreased by 45 percent. This is continuously growing sector and increasing its added value too. However we have to increase domestic plant use and exports.”
Call to municipalities; Use Domestic Product…
Akcan emphasized that the biggest buyers across the country are municipalities and other public institutions, “This is our call to all mayors who started to work on behalf of our producers. It is very necessary for Turkish producers and national economic interests to prefer domestic products in environment and landscape works and to announce the product purchase plans to our producer beforehand” he added.
While there is a local choice, why we pay exorbitant prices abroad?
“If we can learn the purchase plans in advance, we can make our own production planning and meet all the demands with the highest quality domestic plants. We are a sector that can export to European Union countries with increasing rates every year. The Netherlands, England, Germany, Italy and Turkic Republics buy plants from us. If this is the case, our local resources go abroad by paying exorbitant unit prices. In 2018, 61 million dollars were imported. It’s a pity, isn’t it?” he concluded.
