Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

During the workshop which is held by participation of Mr. M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of TOBB, Mr. Vedat Mirmahmutoğulları, Undersecretary of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Mr. Necdet Buzbaş, Chairman of Turkish Food Industry Assembly, Mr. Feyhan Yaşar, Chairman of Turkish Drink Industry Assembly, Prof. Dr. Hakan Yardımcı, Chairman of Bio – safety Council, assembly members and other non – governmental organizations;  “Bio – safety Council and its decisions”, “Bio – safety law and subsequent implementations”, “Bio – safety law and its effects on feed sector”, “Trade, Competition, Legislation” topics have been discussed.
At the opening of the meeting, M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, President of TOBB pointing that agricultural areas were decreased by 25% ratio even though the world’s population was increased by 3 times since 1950, said that “21st century will not only be shaped around energy sources, but also agricultural and water sources. Countries being successful through these fields would also be powerful in terms of economy and politics”.

Pointing out that food prices keep abreast of energy prices in recent period, Mr. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that “wheat prices are increased by 74% and corn prices are increased by 87% in one year within international markets. Higher food prices are also increased the global inequalities. Then, as one African allocates half of his/her income  for food, one European allocates only ten percent of his/ her income for food. Millions of wells opened for irrigation needs of agriculture caused an irrevocable reduction in underground water levels within many countries. Consequently, while production of China which is one of the biggest cereal producers is falling, production in Saudi Arabia have almost run out and it is expected that they would initiate cereal import over a few years.”

-“Brazil rank among the biggest cereal exporters”

Meanwhile, even a few, there are positive developments also, Mr. Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed. And he mentioned the Brazil case; “For example, Brazil ranked among the biggest cereal exporters from being a food importing country. Within the last decade, they increased their agricultural product export by 5 times, meat export by 9 times. Moreover, they accomplished this without harming environment and cutting forests, without even touched Amazons and based on science and Research & Development”.
-“Investment - poor Agriculture Sector”

President of TOBB, Mr. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, expressing that agriculture sector is still being investment – poor, stressed that “this is our first concern. Second is that it becomes more important to improve the productivity of existing lands because in our world it is not quite possible to find new and large cultivable areas. Third one is bio – technology and GMOs (genetically modified organisms).  As food and drink sector we are constantly in contact with Our Minister of Agriculture. We believe that this dialogue shall make a significant contribution for both providing more healthy products for consumers and development of our sector as well”.

- “We are able to make food and drink sector one of the pioneering sectors in terms of employment and export”

President of TOBB Mr. Hisarcıklıoğlu said that; “Especially doubts of the public regarding GMOs has to be eliminated by people well – informed about this issue. We have many companies reached to higher export volume and acting with international criteria within food and drink sector which is the number 4th largest production sector.


Since public didn’t informed correctly and in time, the negative comments by people who are far from this issue and nor a specialist are giving serious damages to our sector. The most effective way to fight with these misinformation is to make right people give right information in right time to public.

We give great importance to food and drink sector. I would like to highlight this with some figures. Total size of the sector was approximately 190 billion TL for 2010 period. According to 2009 period 18% growth is seen. 23% of internal consumption was spent on food and drink.

There are 39 thousands of registered enterprise and 370 thousands of registered employment within food and drink manufacture sector. According to previous year, employment increased as 20 thousand employees. 99% of the enterprises within the sector are Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. There is employment under 10 employees within 82% of them. It means sizes of enterprises are small.

In 2010, export of our sector has been 6,7 billion dollars, import has been 3,4 billion dollars and we had 3,3 billion dollars of trade surplus. Our trade surplus increased 10% according to period of 2009.

We are able to make food and drink sector one of the pioneering sector in terms of employment and export by means of a correct planning and correct supports.”
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