January 24, 2013

Five million ovine and one million bovine animals will be exported by the Turkish Food, Agriculture & Animal Breeding Ministry to Saudi Arabia.

The ministry stated Friday (Jan 18) that a Saudi delegation surveyed the breeding farms in Ankara, Konya, Gaziantep, Mersin, Adana, Hatay-Iskenderun and Izmir following a meeting between Turkish and Saudi agriculture ministers in Istanbul.

The delegation also visited the laboratories in Turkey, and said that the facilities in Turkey were very good, and that they would like to benefit from Turkey's experiences in agriculture. Turkey sees animal breeding as a "strategic sector."

The number of bovine animals increased 26% from 9.9 million to 12.5 million in the past 10 years, while ovine animals rose to 32.3 million, thus, Turkey's total meat production increased 85% from 420,000 tonnes to 777,000 tonnes.