Seed industry looks to take root
Güncelleme Tarihi:
BETÜL ÇAL
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 09, 2009 00:00
ANTALYA - The percentage Turkey occupies in the world seed production market continues to grow, as it becomes recognized by more and more countries worldwide. Experiencing a serious reduction in its economic dependence on imports in the last five years, Turkish seed production is expected to grow to a volume of $1 billion by the year 2020
As cities in southern Turkey look for alternatives to tourism to supplement revenue, a growing number of experts are espousing the production of seeds.
Mete Kömeağaç, chairman of the Turkish Seed Industry Foundation, said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that while it had a trade volume of $100 million in the 1980s, Turkey’s seed production industry had grown to a volume of $450 million today. The industry’s volume of foreign trade on the other hand is $150 million, $90 million of which is from imports.
The percentage Turkey occupies in world seed production continues to grow, as it becomes recognized by more and more countries worldwide. Experiencing a serious reduction in its economic dependence on imports in the last five years, Turkish seed production is expected to grow to a volume of $1 billion by 2020. Turkey, which ranks fifth in the world in terms of its trading volume today, has enough power to compete with bigger players such as the United States, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Having a wide customer base from European countries to the Middle East, Turkey, which imported 95 percent of its seeds used in domestic production, has substantially increased its export potential today.
"While the sector lagged behind many seed producing countries until a short time ago, it now competes with the giant players", said Kömeağaç, adding that this mostly stemmed from the fact that Turkey had initiated a sound research and development policy, especially after the passage of the seed growing law in 2006. However, the research and development field still needs improvements on both the governmental and the private sector sides.
Having similar opinions with Kömeağaç on the importance of Turkey in the sector, Nazmi Gündüz, manager of Antalya Rito Seed Industry, drew attention to the strategic position of the southern city of Antalya for the industry.
Seed production is one of the two locomotive industries in the city with tourism, the other one. Some 95 percent of seed-producing firms are located in Antalya, which offers generous plantation areas up to 200 square-kilometers together with its favorable climate conditions and international reputation of the city.
Effect of economic crisis
Answering a question on the effects of the economic crisis on Turkish seed production, Kömeağaç said the affects of the economic crisis had not been felt so adversely in the sector. He said that although the money returns had a hitch for some time, the operations both in the domestic and the international markets were going on at full speed. "Besides, Turkey has taken its place among the countries, which are closely watched by the sector authorities worldwide, in terms of the quality and diversity in which it produces seeds as well as the technology used ", he added.
Agreeing with Kömeağaç that the economic crisis had not hit seed production as badlty as it has hit the other sectors, Teoman Hızal, manager of the Antalya Anamas Seed Industry, said their company had increased the number of engineers from five to 13 since the outbreak of the economic crisis. Hızal, on the other hand marked the ongoing problem in the industry was that incoming became lost among the middlemen along the chain from the producer to the end user. Hızal simply put it this way: "The producers assert that they cannot make money from the products they produce. The users, or rather the consumer, on the other hand say that they pay a lot of money for these products. Then the question is; where does the money go in between?"
Hızal underlined that unless necessary precautions were taken in order to prevent the unjust profit of the middlemen, the sector would bring itself to ruin.
Although the seed production ensures high incomes, together with the potential for greater exploration in time, it faces some problems that it may endanger its future. The common problem on which the industry authorities agree is that seed certification was lacking in Turkey. With more sound policies, the Ministry of Agriculture should encourage the producers to use certified seeds, which will increase productivity by 25 percent, Kömeağaç said.
It is also necessary to support the national seed industry with new investments, he concluded.
Mete Kömeağaç, chairman of the Turkish Seed Industry Foundation, said in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that while it had a trade volume of $100 million in the 1980s, Turkey’s seed production industry had grown to a volume of $450 million today. The industry’s volume of foreign trade on the other hand is $150 million, $90 million of which is from imports.
The percentage Turkey occupies in world seed production continues to grow, as it becomes recognized by more and more countries worldwide. Experiencing a serious reduction in its economic dependence on imports in the last five years, Turkish seed production is expected to grow to a volume of $1 billion by 2020. Turkey, which ranks fifth in the world in terms of its trading volume today, has enough power to compete with bigger players such as the United States, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Having a wide customer base from European countries to the Middle East, Turkey, which imported 95 percent of its seeds used in domestic production, has substantially increased its export potential today.
"While the sector lagged behind many seed producing countries until a short time ago, it now competes with the giant players", said Kömeağaç, adding that this mostly stemmed from the fact that Turkey had initiated a sound research and development policy, especially after the passage of the seed growing law in 2006. However, the research and development field still needs improvements on both the governmental and the private sector sides.
Having similar opinions with Kömeağaç on the importance of Turkey in the sector, Nazmi Gündüz, manager of Antalya Rito Seed Industry, drew attention to the strategic position of the southern city of Antalya for the industry.
Seed production is one of the two locomotive industries in the city with tourism, the other one. Some 95 percent of seed-producing firms are located in Antalya, which offers generous plantation areas up to 200 square-kilometers together with its favorable climate conditions and international reputation of the city.
Effect of economic crisis
Answering a question on the effects of the economic crisis on Turkish seed production, Kömeağaç said the affects of the economic crisis had not been felt so adversely in the sector. He said that although the money returns had a hitch for some time, the operations both in the domestic and the international markets were going on at full speed. "Besides, Turkey has taken its place among the countries, which are closely watched by the sector authorities worldwide, in terms of the quality and diversity in which it produces seeds as well as the technology used ", he added.
Agreeing with Kömeağaç that the economic crisis had not hit seed production as badlty as it has hit the other sectors, Teoman Hızal, manager of the Antalya Anamas Seed Industry, said their company had increased the number of engineers from five to 13 since the outbreak of the economic crisis. Hızal, on the other hand marked the ongoing problem in the industry was that incoming became lost among the middlemen along the chain from the producer to the end user. Hızal simply put it this way: "The producers assert that they cannot make money from the products they produce. The users, or rather the consumer, on the other hand say that they pay a lot of money for these products. Then the question is; where does the money go in between?"
Hızal underlined that unless necessary precautions were taken in order to prevent the unjust profit of the middlemen, the sector would bring itself to ruin.
Although the seed production ensures high incomes, together with the potential for greater exploration in time, it faces some problems that it may endanger its future. The common problem on which the industry authorities agree is that seed certification was lacking in Turkey. With more sound policies, the Ministry of Agriculture should encourage the producers to use certified seeds, which will increase productivity by 25 percent, Kömeağaç said.
It is also necessary to support the national seed industry with new investments, he concluded.