20.12.2023 Kocaeli
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu visited Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce and attended the Kandıra Ox Yogurt Geographical Indication Registration Ceremony and Consultation Meeting with the Business World held at the Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce (KOTO) Meeting Hall.
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that the way to branding is through registration. Stating that almost every
district of Türkiye has local cheese, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that these local
products should be branded.
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that France earns 1 billion dollars a year from Roquefort cheese and said,
“Allah has given us such a wealth that we have a cheese variety in almost every
district, but it does not make money when we do not brand it. Inshallah, our
Kandıra Ox Yogurt has been registered and we will register it in the European
Union. There are many registrations in the EU. After we finish them, how can we
make money from it? How can we increase our brand value? We will also start
working on this.”
Pointing out that the
chambers and commodity exchanges affiliated to TOBB have a great effort in the
recognition and importance of geographical indications, Hisarcıklıoğlu said,
“Almost 50 percent of Türkiye's registered products were taken by our chambers
and commodity exchanges. Our chambers and commodity exchanges embraced this
work. They protect it in their own provinces and regions. Since 2010, 40 percent
of the products with geographical indications have been registered by my
chambers and exchanges, which we took over in 2010. Currently, the number of
products registered by them has exceeded 700. 700 products have become patented
in Türkiye.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that as TOBB, they registered producers with geographical indications and
encouraged the production of products with geographical indications.
Hisarcıklıoğlu, talking
about his work on producers and products with geographical indications, continued
as follows: “This work does not end only with domestic registration. It is very
important to register abroad and enter global markets. Why? The money is there.
The way to earn money is to bring the product to the foreign market. The number
of products we have registered in the EU so far is 18 and 50 products are
currently under evaluation. In the past we were not aware of this, we lost many
of our values to the Greeks. Since it is almost the same geography, they have
the same products. We protected the baklava first, and then moved on to others.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
emphasized that as TOBB, they have done the necessary work on geographically
marked products and said, “If we do not know the value of the products coming
out of these lands first, we cannot explain them to foreign markets. We have a
variety of products that few geographies in the world are blessed with. If you
want to be rich, if you want to make your region rich, you will protect your
own local products. First we will register our products at home, then we will
register them in the EU. Research these, whatever we have, brand it and sell it
to the world.”
After the speech,
Hisarcıklıoğlu tasted “İzmit Bagel” and “Kandıra Ox Yogurt,” two of Kocaeli's
geographically marked products registered with the initiative of KOTO.
The program continued
closed to the press with a consultation meeting with industrialists.