European suppliers to offer red meat at half the price in Turkey

Europe-based meat exporters to Turkey could mitigate the current red meat shortage in the Turkish market, offering meat for half the current price, industry representatives said early this week.

The Turkish red meat market has experienced an unprecedented rise in prices over the past few weeks. The government recently decided to resume livestock and red meat imports through the state-owned Meat and Fish Institution (EBK) in a bid to ease skyrocketing prices in the domestic market.

Aydın Yardımcı, the owner of Aydın-Fleisch-Handels-GmbH, said Turkish red meat exporters in Europe could provide red meat to Turkey at relatively cheaper prices once the government sets its import criteria. ''We could sell red meat to Turkey for prices even as cheap as half the prices currently seen in the domestic market,'' he explained.

Recalling that the EBK imported around 15,000 heads of livestock from Germany between 1993 and 1996, Yardımcı said Germany was one of the ''safest'' markets in Europe in this regard. Yardımcı said Turkish-owned companies based in European countries could receive special permits from the local governments for halal slaughter, or slaughter in accordance with Islamic laws, adding that halal certificates are available in certain European markets.

Citing the current monopolisation in the Turkish meat market as the major factor behind the extraordinary price hikes of late, he emphasised that the government made the right decision in lifting the ban on red meat imports. ''This, however, would only serve as a temporary solution. It could also harm the Turkish animal husbandry sector in the long run,'' he added.

Meanwhile, sources in the eastern province of Erzurum said that many animal breeders in the province are hurrying to sell their livestock to the market following the latest government decision to resume red meat and livestock imports. Observers expect such a development to bring about a marked decline in red meat prices. The Erzurum EBK Slaughterhouse has already received applications for the slaughter of 500 heads of livestock. Erzurum Chamber of Agriculture President Mücahit Harmandar told the Anatolia news agency on Wednesday that there are 3,000 more heads of livestock ready for slaughter in the province.