Celal Kadooglu, President of the Southeastern Anatolia Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Exporters’ Association, stated that they increased exports by 19.5% in the first two months of the year, reaching $560 million.
In his written statement, Kadooglu stated that grain producers in the Southeast made approximately $100 million more sales compared to the same period last year.
Noting that Iraq’s share in total grain exports to the region exceeded 36%, Kadooglu stated that African countries such as Djibouti, Libya, Ghana and Togo are among the 10 largest markets.
Referring to the pressure of stocks carried over from previous years on wheat prices, despite the decrease in demand due to the global economic recession, Kadooglu said:
“We increased grain exports by 19.5% in the first two months of the year, reaching $560 million. Wheat production in the world in the last 2 years exceeded 1.5 billion tons. In this abundance that has continued since 2022, countries with financial means have stocked large amounts in their warehouses. As the new harvest season approaches, we see that competition in this field is intensifying, which puts some pressure on global prices. In our region, the decline in export unit prices of wheat has approached 10%. On the other hand, since the purchasing power of each country is not the same, the demand in less economically developed regions has not stopped. We confirm this by the fact that our wheat exports in the first 2 months increased by 15% in terms of quantity compared to the same period last year. We export the most wheat from Southeastern Anatolia to Iraq, Syria, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia.”
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz