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Turkey’s oilseeds exports increased by 17% in the first half of 2021

Mustafa Terci, President of the Aegean Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Exporters’ Association, announced that while the exports of the union in the January-June period of 2020 were $265 million, in 2021 it was $309 million with an increase of 17%.

Mustafa Terci, President of Aegean Cereals, Pulses, Oil Seeds and Products Exporters’ Association, said, “Vegetable oil is the locomotive in the export of our Union. Our members, vegetable oil exporters, achieved an export of $168 million and received a 54% share of the Union’s exports. We expect our vegetable oil exports, which we sent to 140 countries and reached $981 million in 2020, to reach $1 billion 250 million by the end of 2021. Milling products, oilseeds, confectionery, bakery products were other sectors that stood out in our exports. In the January-June period, $32 million of chocolate confectionery products were sold with an acceleration of 66%, oilseeds of $23 million with a 1% increase, $21 million of cossettes and animal feeds with an increase of 6%, and $16 million of grain products with an increase of 40%. The top 5 exporting countries in six months are Libya with $38 million, Yemen with $26 million, Tunisia with $18 million, Algeria with $15 million and Germany with $14 million. In the January-June period of 2021, the 3 countries with the highest increase in exports were Mozambique, Brazil and Syria, respectively.”

EXPORT TO 203 COUNTRIES

President Terci said, “When we look at Turkey in general, we export to 203 countries, mainly the Middle East, the USA and Africa. We export to 150 countries in the Aegean region. We have an export target of $550 million for 2021. The cereals, pulses and oilseeds sector is one of the leading sectors that supports the food export of our country with its wide product range. 41% of Turkey’s food exports belong to our sector. Our sector realized $7.3 billion of our country’s food exports of $18 billion in 2020. We continue to promote our food products in the USA with our “TURQUALITY Project”, which we have successfully carried out for two years with the partnership of our 6 Food Association and supported by the Ministry of Commerce. Grain Pulses Oil Seeds and Products Tasting Event was held in the kitchen laboratory of the University of Vegas (UNLV-University of Nevada-Las Vegas / Las Vegas) in May. Food products constitute $160 billion of the US’s imports of approximately $2.6 trillion. Our Turkey-wide food exports to the USA in 2020 were at the level of $970 million.”

$1.5 BILLION TARGET

Stating that they aim to increase food exports to the USA to $1.5 billion in 2023, Terci said, “Our food sectors, in which we are strong in the US market, are cereals, pulses, oilseeds and products with an export of $373 million. Our sector realizes 38% of food exports to the USA. In the last 3 years, our exports to the USA as a whole in Turkey have increased by 43% in the sector. In the last 3 years, we recorded an increase of 61% in our exports from the Aegean to the USA. In addition, we received a promise of support from our Minister of Trade, Dr. Mehmet Mus, in order to eliminate the bottleneck experienced in the Indian market, which is the largest export market in poppy seed exports, which is one of the traditional export products of the Aegean Region. We believe that we will achieve positive results from our initiatives at the Ministry of Commerce to open poppy seed imports in India. If the problem is solved immediately, we are at a point where we can earn around $65-70 million of foreign currency to our country by exporting 18-20 thousand tons of poppy seeds. We would like to thank our Minister of Commerce Dr. Mehmet Mus for his close attention.”

Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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