23.02.2016 Ankara
Speaking at the TOBB Commodity Exchanges Council Meeting, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the value of agriculture will only become apparent once it is absent, “If we do not take precautions, if we import every product just because it is cheaper to do so we will become dependent to the outside. This would threaten our food security. Then is that what we should do today when, importing is cheaper? Of course not, we must recognize the reality of this region and appreciate our millennia old cultural values and seek to increase the productivity of farming, to implement a better system. Let us turn agriculture into a profitable endeavor. Let us instill in it economic discipline. Let us introduce terms like cost, competition, productivity, profit and scale into this agriculture.”
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Commodity
Exchanges Council Meeting was held at the TOBB Twin Towers in Ankara on the 23rd
of February, 2016 with the attendances of TOBB President M. Rifat
Hisarcıklıoğlu, Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Faruk Çelik and
Customs and Commerce Minister Bülent Tüfeknci as well as council members.
In his speech at the council meeting, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that a busy
year is ahead of them. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that new upheavals surface each
day in global markets, “Uncertainty continues to reign in global markets.
Europe is unable to maintain economic growth. Despite all this, Turkey’s economy and real sector show their
robustness. As of last year, we’ve reached 4% growth. We’ve found employment
for 720,000 people.”
- “Agriculture is our country’s perpetual inheritance”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
reported that exports have increased by 1.5% in terms of amount, Turkey’s share
in global trade increasing to 8.7‰. Domestic machinery investments have passed
63 million Euros and agricultural production has increased its volume to 1st
in Europe and 7th globally.
“Our
goal this year to surpass 4% growth. This illustrates the importance of our
agricultural sector. Our national policy regarding agriculture should be
focused on forming this mentality, bringing about its institutional structure
and formulate regulations and practices geared towards this goal. Today, agriculture
is one of Turkey’s most important sectors. Not just in an economic sense but
also in regards to how it is codified culturally, as a way of life.
Furthermore, agriculture is our countries perpetual heritage. We are, however,
not tapping into this treasure.
We
have joined the Customs Union with Europe. This has changed our industry,
becoming integrated into the global system. But agriculture has been left
untended. We feel the negative effects
of this increasingly each day. Food prices are dropping worldwide while they
increase in Turkey. Not even the producers are benefiting from it. Everyone is
complaining. Urban life has become even more expensive. The competitive power
of the food industry is dropping. While productivity has increased in many goods,
they are still well below EU levels. We see the effects of this on our exports.
Countries with much smaller arable land comparatively are producing more
agricultural goods than us.
Another
issue is the diminutive establishment sizes we encounter in Turkey. Urbanism
and unchecked and use is diminishing Turkey’s arable land each year.
Agricultural goods input is largely imported. Manure, pesticides and machinery
are almost all imported. Exchange rate increases negatively impact agriculture
in the most damaging way.
On
the other hand we observe that 5.5 million people are employed in the sector.
Per capita agricultural production for the sector is around 10,500 USD. France,
Italy and Spain average in the 50,000 USD range. This means they produce and
profit 5 times more than we do.
The
difference is a well-designed system. We must view farming as a new opportunity
and avenue of income. Perhaps the 5.5 million producers we have, if they were
to produce goods on par European standards, our agricultural production volume
would not be 60 billion USD but 275 billion USD, increasing NGP by 215 billion
USD and per capita income by 2,700 USD.”
- “High technology production infrastructure must be
established”
Stating
that the problems encountered in the agricultural sector are not temporary but
systemic, Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed the necessity of comprehensively reimagining
the system completely.
“The
agriculture sector must be brought up to compete with the global markets. We
must transform our agricultural sector just as we have transformed our
industry. As TOBB, along with our commodity exchanges, are working to implement
projects and endeavors which would push the sector forward. The opinions,
suggestions and problems of our exchanges are being relayed to the politicians
and solutions are being sought.
Going
on to provide additional information in regards to the various support and
incentives on offer for domestic R&D efforts, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that,
“TOBB, along with its Chambers and Exchanges, will work to actualize this
transformation in agriculture. In regards to issues, our priority is of course
the strengthening of peace and trust all over the country. Trade is only
possible in times of peace. If there is trade, prosperity will come.
We
aware that our government is receptive to the needs of the real sector, to this
end we put great importance on the 25 Prioritized Transformation Program and
the 2016 Action Plan. We will benefit our country through private and public
sector cooperation. The TOBB community believes that Turkey is a great country
with the power to overcome any obstacle. All that is necessary is that we
maintain our unity and stability. Hopefully, our consultation today will be
beneficial.”
- Customs and Commerce Minister Tüfenkci
Minister
Bülent Tüfenkci began by condemning the terror attack which took place in
Ankara. He went on to provide information on the statistics of commodity
exchanges in Turkey, stressing the need to work on sustainable pricing
structure for current capacity and agricultural goods in commodity exchanges.
- Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Çelik
Food,
Agriculture and Livestock Minister Faruk Çelik stated that work is underway to satisfy
meat demand, going on to drawing attention to the potential of Turkey’s arable
land as well as using commodity exchanges make effective use of this potential.
Çelik
stated that licensed warehousing is unable to gain traction because the state
is still involved in licensed warehousing and that they have taken steps to reduce
government involvement.
Çelik
reported that livestock exchanges is very important for the development of
livestock farming and that a livestock exchange would be opened soon in
Afyonkarahisar.