July 10, 2010

 

Turkey becomes dependent on agriculture imports

The country is losing its status as a "grain silo" and has now become an importer of agricultural products, according to a report from a Turkish trade chamber.

 

The Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), said in its report released Friday (Jul 9) that Turkey is importing many agricultural products from over 100 countries, including wheat, corn and lentils.

 

Turkey, which has twice as much agricultural field area as the total area of Greece, is now importing cotton from Greece and the US.

 

The wheat comes from Russia, corn from the Ukraine and lentils from Canada.

 

Having 24.5 million hectares of agricultural fields, Turkey lets 4.2 million hectares of land lie fallow it every year, an area equal to the total area of the Netherlands.

 

Turkey's agricultural product exports were around US$2 billion and its imports were only around US$50 million at the beginning of the 1980s. In 30 years, these figures have reached US$4.3 billion and US$4.5 billion respectively, which mean a two-fold rise in exports and 90-fold rise in imports.

 

"Turkey is becoming agriculturally dependent," ATO Chairman Sinan Aygün said in a statement, adding that agricultural production is not rising fast enough to compensate for the rise in population.