13.08.2021 Trabzon
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu attended the 2020 Hazelnut Export Record Holders Award Ceremony held within the scope of World Hazelnut Week.
TOBB President
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Turkey has experienced many disasters in the last
week, “But I believe that we will face all these disasters with strength, with
our will to fight, with our fortitude born of unity and solidarity. By trusting
each other, taking strength from each other, by the grace of Allah, we will put
these troubles behind us.”
“There are two
treasures here worth gold: hazelnuts and tourism,” Hisarciklıoğlu said, “If we
appreciate it, it will make us and future generations rich. But we need to
focus not only on quantity, but on quality. Just like tea, Hazelnut is a
strategic product for both our people in the region and our country. Without
imported input, we make $2-3 billion every year, perhaps our most domestic and
national asset. It keeps our people here and protects the soil from destruction
and erosion with its roots. In other words, hazelnuts are not just nuts.”
Emphasizing that they
have to take care of hazelnuts and hazelnut gardens, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “We
have to dry it well, pack it up correctly and bring it to market in a quality
way. By switching to machine farming, we need to reduce the cost and increase
production. We must renovate the aging gardens, our trees that have fallen from
yield, with the support of the state. As we increase the yield, our harvest and
our earnings will be much more abundant.”
In this way,
Hisarcıklıoğlu said, export revenue can double to 4-5 billion.
Trabzon Commodity
Exchange has implemented various projects to increase the yield in hazelnuts,
established sample gardens, distributed seedlings to the producer, implementing
the Project to Increase Yield and Quality in Hazelnut, implemented an
innovation such as Hazelnut Bread to add this product to the most consumed
bread and brought all the stakeholders of the sector together here on the
occasion of World Hazelnut Week.
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that they have to add value to the hazelnut, and that they have generated $2
billion in revenue, but when processed into chocolate abroad, it reaches $10
billion. Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed that it is very important to produce better
quality hazelnuts and to convert and sell hazelnuts into products in order to
export more.