Turkey to not import wheat this year, says union head

Agriculturalists’ Association of Turkey (TZD) President İbrahim Yetkin has said Turkey will not need to import wheat this year unless an unforeseen event causes a disruption to domestic supply.

That Turkey’s production of wheat is expected to sufficiently meet domestic demand this year was one of the remarks Yetkin made at a press conference the TZD called in Ankara on Sunday to announce initial estimates relating to fresh fruit and vegetable production as well as that of wheat in Turkey in 2011.

Yetkin said Turkey will produce 20-21 million tons of wheat this year, which is approximately a 10 percent increase compared to last year’s 19.6 million tons. Annual wheat consumption in Turkey is about 19 million tons, he added.

Deadly forest fires last year destroyed a quarter of the grain crop in Russia, which is the world’s third largest grain producing nation, leading the country to ban all wheat exports from mid-August. The news alarmed international commodity markets and pushed wheat futures to two-year highs. Although this was unfortunate for other wheat importers, it had little impact on the Turkish market; however, the government still granted the state-owned Soil Products Office (TMO) the right to customs-free imports in December of last year for 1 million tons of wheat to contain the risk of possible price increases in the sector. It also later wiped the 130 percent tariff on wheat and oat imports till May 1 of this year for the private sector as well.

At the conference yesterday, Yetkin increased optimism ahead of the market opening on Monday. He said despite adverse climatic conditions and natural disasters in the past three-and-a-half months, the production of fresh fruit and vegetables this year will not turn out as bad as first feared. “The production of mainly tomatoes, apricots, grapes and nuts as well as some other fruit and vegetables was negatively affected because of cold weather, hail and flooding, but not at serious levels,” he said. He added that this is why there may be a reduction in the tomato exports export this year, and that a surge in the price of tomatoes is also likely until the summer crop hits the markets.