February 1, 2021

 

Increase of 0.9% in Turkey's chicken meat production in first nine months of 2020

Chicken meat productions in Turkey rose by 0.9% in the first nine months of 2020, according to the country's statistical authority (TurkStat).

 

Chicken meat production amounted to 1.61 million tonnes in the nine-month period, while turkey meat production rose by 5.5% to reach 44,788 tonnes.

 

The figure for slaughtered chicken was 909.3 million units, up 0.5% year-on-year. Slaughtered turkeys climbed by 3.8% to 4,377 units over the same period.

 

The official poultry production report also revealed that hen egg production in Turkey totaled 14.6 billion units, decreasing slightly by 0.5% year-on-year during the first three quarters.

 

Meanwhile, in September, chicken and turkey meat production totaled 174,035 tonnes and 4,563 tonnes. Those figures were down 7.8% and 7.9%, respectively.

 

Turkey is importing around 3.5 million tonnes of soybean and soybean meal yearly, and the growth of the industry is providing great opportunity to increase US soy exports to the region in the future, the US Soybean Export Council (USSEC) said.

 

While the Turkish poultry and feed industries are rapidly growing, issues are arising in the utilisation of US soy.

 

The Turkish feed industry became the largest feed producer in Europe last year, with 25 million tonnes of feed produced.

 

However, soybean and corn imports from the United States have slowed down and even stopped in the past two years due to unapproved genetically modified organisms-related (GMO) developments for both commodities.

 

According to USSEC, chicken is the most popular meat in Turkey. As of 2020, Turkey had 7,807 broiler production facilities.

 

In 2020, Turkish producers faced the COVID-19 pandemic during high-capacity months, resulting in production overstocks industry-wide. 

 

- USSEC