Sumitomo establishes subsidiary in Turkey

Sumitomo Corporation established an agricultural chemical sales company in the Republic of Turkey on April 1st.

Ranked 13th in the world in arable land area, Turkey is one of the leading agricultural countries in the Middle East, with farmers accounting for around 20% of its total population of over 70million. Mainly, the coastal area of Turkey is key agricultural zones, but the Turkish government has recently begun promoting agriculture to develop farmland and improve yields nationwide, with its agricultural aid policy supporting such projects as the construction of irrigation facilities in southeastern Turkey. This helped the Turkish agricultural chemicals market to grow at an annual rate of 3-4%. (In 2011 about US$580million as import wholesale basis, the 24th largest in the world)

Building on the agricultural chemical sales business inherited from Sumitomo Turkey, the new company will post specialist sales staff to key locations to promote more extensive use of specialty agricultural chemicals, primarily herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides produced by Japanese manufacturers, across Turkey via sales to local distributors and retail shops. This new company will further leverage the know-how and human resources that the Sumitomo Corporation Group has cultivated around the world to enhance customer service by upgrading functions - ensuring legal compliance with import registration requirements, providing more extensive guidance to farmers on methods of using agricultural chemicals, and enhancing its product portfolio - and to achieve sales of about US$40 million and a 6% market share in 2016.

Sumitomo Corporation's agricultural chemical business made a full-fledged start in the 1970s when it began exporting agricultural chemicals produced by Japanese manufacturers and, in line with its strategy of deepening downstream sectors in the value chain, the company has expanded its import and sales operations to more than 20 countries in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere, and acquired agricultural material wholesalers in Eastern Europe. Having now established an agricultural chemical sales company in Turkey, its first in the Middle East, Sumitomo Corporation will consider further forays into promising markets in emerging countries and elsewhere as part of its global expansion, and do its part to take on the global challenge of ensuring stable food supplies.

The policy's quantitative targets include (1) boosting agricultural GDP to US$150 billion (US$62 billion in 2010) and (2) increasing agricultural exports to US$40 billion (US$12 billion in 2010) by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey. The policy aims to address higher domestic consumption stemming from a rising domestic population and economic growth and to foster/strengthen the food industry as an export industry.