Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu, in his speech at the opening of the Workshop on Development of Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives in the Kelkit Basin held at the Aydın Doğan Vocational School in Kelkit county, said that the workshop was a remarkable step to boost agriculture and animal husbandry in the region.

Pointing out that the development and the enrichment of the region would be through animal husbandry and agriculture, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As Turkey, we have tremendous potential in agriculture and animal husbandry. When we look at national agricultural GDP, we rank in Europe in the first and eighth globally. Agriculture is a direct foreign exchange earning sector in our country. We should prepare our agriculture and livestock sector for global competition, just like the industrial sector.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu underlined that there is a problem at this point, “We need to prepare agriculture and animal husbandry for global competition. For this, we need new policies because agriculture and animal husbandry are different from other sectors. If we do not, our food safety is also threatened.”

- “We have a great market to sell to if we are able to produce.”

Noting that the world cannot ignore agriculture and animal husbandry in the future, Hisarcıklıoğlu went on:

“There is a rapidly growing middle class in the world. The middle class consumes and spends more. Each year, the middle class population grows by twice the population of Turkey. 160 million people added to the middle class. Around us, in our region, is a population of about 2 billion. The 2 billion population is importing approximately 500 billion USD of agricultural, food and livestock products, which means we have a great market around us and we have a great market to sell to; add to it the fact that price increases in agriculture and livestock all over the world are always above the price increase of other products. Why? Because population, income and consumption are increasing. In the coming period, agriculture and animal husbandry will always profit. They will never lose their importance. As we live, we have to consume and we have the chance the feed the whole world.”

After the opening speeches, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu cut the ribbon of the photography exhibition at the Aydın Doğan Vocational School and toured the exhibition.