Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

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.