Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

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 23^rd 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 1^st in Europe and 7^th 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.