Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

In his speech at the conference, TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed his happiness for being in Mersin, the pearl of the Mediterranean, a beautiful city of the world and said, “Because there is dynamism, motion and abundance in Mersin. The beauty of the Mediterranean Sea, the glory of the Taurus Mountains and the fertility of the land have always come together here. Mersin; city ​​of agriculture, tourism, industry, logistics and education. Mersin is a city that has managed to provide foreign trade surplus. Mersin Port is the second largest port in Turkey. Mersin is also a very important agricultural center. Turkey's most fertile region is here.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that everything grows in Mersin and said, “You are the citrus capital. You are the first in fruit production. You are third in vegetable production. Mersin is also the leader in bananas, mandarins, lemons, oranges, strawberries and many other products. That's why Mersin is the star as well as the center of agriculture in Turkey. Mersin is the city which teaches how to monetize agriculture and agricultural production to Turkey.”

- “Whoever feeds the world will be a leading country”

Emphasizing that agriculture is an area that should never be neglected, Hisarcıklıoğlu continued: “Why? First, the world's population increases every year. The global population increases each year by the equivalent of Turkey’s population. Second, the middle class is constantly growing in the world. The middle class consumes more and spends more. Every year, the middle class increases in population equivalent to times that of Turkey’s population. Thirdly, 2 billion people live in our surrounding region. It imports 500 billion USD of food, agricultural and livestock products. This is a great opportunity. We can feed the whole region. So we gain both money and strategic power.”

Stating that, “Whoever feeds the world would will be a leading country, “Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed that they cannot neglect agriculture for these reasons.

Pointing out that the technological revolution in the world has reached agriculture, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “They develop products from vegetable proteins that can replace meat as we know it. Chicken, sheep and calf meats. There are products to replace what you want. One of them, a new company called Beyond Meat, is a 10-year old start-up set up in the US. It was recently offered to the public. It saw so much demand that its value has reached 9 billion USD. Does anyone know what the market value of our biggest company is, never mind agriculture or food? That's also 9 billion USD. This is just one of the new companies emerging in this field. And it is not just in the United States; India in recent months has established a research institute to develop clean meat technology. In the laboratory, they aim to produce clean meat from animal cells, not plant-based. This is how a structural solution addresses a structural problem. So why is India moving to clean meat? Because, consumption and eating habits are changing rapidly and growing; there are 1.3 billion Indians. Meat and milk prices need to be accessible to Indians and increased consumption needs to be met. Thanks to these new technologies, the need for soil is reduced by 90% and water is reduced by 70%. When technology produces meat substitutes to replace meat, there is no need to increase the number of animals fed for meat.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that mankind has stopped hunting for food and perhaps in the future, there will be no need to slaughter animals.

Pointing out that this is the true test of Turkey's agriculture and livestock, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “How we transform our traditional sectors, agriculture and industrial policy is a fundamental problem for the next 10 years. We need to focus on this as soon as possible. So how do we stand at the moment? Our country ranks 1^st in Europe and 7^th in the world in agricultural production. We have 384 billion USD of vegetable and animal production. Our agriculture and livestock sector exports 18 billion USD and imports 13 billion USD. In other words, it is one of the rare sectors which provides foreign trade surplus. In addition, we are able to import and process raw materials and export them so that the added value remains in our country. For example, we imported 54 million tons of wheat, worth 15 billion USD between 2002-2018. But in contrast, we exported 68 million tons of finished products worth 27 billion USD. We are the first in Europe for small cage animals. For cattle, we are second after France. These are areas in which we are good.”

- We relayed the problems to the Minister before the Agriculture and Forest Council

Stating that they are aware of the fact that they are far behind their potential in agriculture and animal husbandry, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In the evening, we met with Mr. Bekir Pakdemirli, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, in Ankara. We have relayed to him your problems and proposals put together before the 3^rd Agriculture and Forestry Council. The first was the need to move from a model in which you sell what you grow to growing what you will sell instead. Second, in order to reduce our input costs in agriculture and animal husbandry, we must switch to the unified production model. Contract production model should be expanded. The idle state treasury and individual lands should be rented through land leases and brought into production. The economy of scale should be introduced. Now, if you want to survive in this era, you must produce a lot, buy a lot and sell a lot. One way to achieve this is cooperatives. There are already good examples in this area. Thirdly, the producers need a new financing model, as long as the crop will turn from sowing into cash. Agricultural subsidies should be determined before planting time and paid on time. Fourth, a new social security system is needed to meet the labor force needs in the sector. Fifth, we should redesign animal husbandry according to the conditions and characteristics of our country. We should establish Organized Livestock Regions, for instance, raw material production in Eastern Anatolia, milk livestock in the Aegean and Mediterranean, animal husbandry in Central Anatolia.”

- Licensed warehousing and Product Specialized Exchanges

Hisarcıklıoğlu touched on what TOBB is doing for the agriculture-livestock market: “Our commodity exchanges are regulating the agriculture-livestock market. The products are analyzed in accredited laboratories in our exchanges. Prices of products are determined in the electronic sales halls in our exchanges with the participation of buyers and sellers. We offer modern commodity exchange services with our accredited laboratories, electronic sales halls, licensed warehouses. Today, our commodity exchanges have become an example to the world. We pass on our experiences in Commodity Exchanges to 57 Islamic countries and Turkic Republics.

Recently, we have taken important steps to further develop the agriculture and livestock market. We have made licensed warehouses a reality. The manufacturer now brings its products to the licensed warehouse. First the product is analyzed in the laboratory, then put into the warehouse. He uses the electronic product deed (ELUS) in return for access to finance and uses it as collateral. For further development of licensed warehousing, we provided investment, rent, logistics and analysis support from the government. In addition, we enabled the tax exemption of ELUSs to be extended until 2023. The licensed warehouse volume exceeded 4.2 million tons.

It was the dream of Turkish agriculture for 50 years. We established the Product Specialized Exchanges. With the Specialized Exchanges, prices of agricultural and livestock products will be determined in our country. The basis of the Product Exchange is our licensed warehouses. You will be able to buy and sell the product stocks you have purchased from the licensed warehouse at the Product Exchange. Just like Exchange İstanbul. This is the commodity exchange.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they have experienced many crises and turmoil in the last 25 years, both internal and external, “By acting in unity and solidarity, we overcame many obstacles. Let's keep this in mind. Disagreements are not solved by fighting. They are solved through dialogue with common purpose. When everyone stands together, Allah graces us with grace and blessings. As long as we don't alienate each other. We need to transform our differences into wealth. Nobody can defeat us when we're all together. All we want from the government is equal conditions with our competitors. We'll take care of the rest.”