Markets and bazaars in 2025

On August 29 last year, based on the fact that agriculture in Turkey had reached the point of collapse, we wrote: “We might all go hungry next year!”

Perhaps we didn't “go hungry” in the literal sense of the phrase, but we have left behind a year in which we tried to survive—even below the hunger threshold.

I am not the one saying this; if anyone is curious, they can look at the frequently updated hunger and poverty threshold data. When you compare this data with the minimum wage and average pension in Turkey, you can see the picture clearly.

Unfortunately, today has become a day that makes us miss yesterday, and yesterday made us miss the day before.

We are getting poorer by the day.

The middle class has almost disappeared. Those who could save themselves managed to latch onto the upper class that enjoys the spoils of the new regime, but the majority have been relegated to a lower tier.

It hurts even to say or write this.

Adequate nutrition has now become the most important issue in human life.

Let alone baklava, pastries, or ice cream, even basic food items have become so expensive that vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, and eggs are considered luxuries.

Unfortunately, since 2002, Turkey has become a country where its people are officially facing hunger due to the nonsensical policies of political Islamists.

It is as if you are in Europe after the Second World War.

The situation of retirees and low-income earners is pathetic. There are those who haven't seen meat, milk, or cheese for months; those who say, “I hope the Feast of Sacrifice comes so we can eat a morsel of roasted meat.”

Malnutrition does not only affect those over a certain age. Children in their growth phase are the most affected by this.

For example, stunting in children has almost exploded in recent years; and it is not just stunting, but diseases caused by malnutrition have also run rampant.

Would the Ministry of Health explain how the values in blood tests taken at Family Health Centers (ASM) and state hospitals are dropping year by year?

Of course, they won't explain it; they cannot.

What we are experiencing is not just an economic crisis. It is also a social depression.

With the decrease and reduction of the population working in agriculture over the last 22 years, the rise in fuel prices and, consequently, transportation costs, middlemen, taxes, and opportunists—at the end of the day, it is inflation that the government has knowingly and willingly triggered to transfer capital to its own cronies, to the radical Islamist minority...

When we go to the market or the bazaar, everything is burning hot with prices.

Let's skip the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TÜİK) inflation calculation; the market is on fire.

Whoever touches it gets burned.

Exactly one year ago, we wrote about the vegetable and fruit prices in the markets established in the Edremit Gulf. Let's compare last year's prices with this year's.

For instance, in the Altınkum and Edremit markets, a kilo of green beans and black-eyed peas was 100 TL, and okra was 120 TL. This year, it has increased by almost one hundred percent. Green beans are sold between 200-250 TL, black-eyed peas between 180-220 TL, and the price of a kilo of okra has skyrocketed up to 300 TL.

This year, a bunch of purslane is looking for customers at 20-30 TL, and sea beans are being sold for whatever they can get, between 30-50 TL.

Lettuce is being sold for 45-50 TL.

However, last year, a bunch of purslane was 10-15 TL, and sea beans were 15-20 TL. There is a price increase of up to one hundred percent.

Again, last year, tomato prices varied between 10-50 TL depending on the variety. A kilo of good quality tomatoes for paste was 15 TL, those that had started to rot were 10 TL, Çanakkale field tomatoes were 30-40 TL, and pink highland tomatoes were around 40-50 TL.

We can say that tomato prices this year are a bit more merciful compared to other vegetables. There has only been an increase of between 30-50 percent compared to last year.

However, the same cannot be said for the tomato's close friend, the pepper.

Last year, a kilo of green peppers was 40 TL; this year it starts at 100 TL.

Eggplant was 30 TL last year, and carrots were 50 TL. This year, eggplant is between 40-50 TL, and carrots are looking for customers at 60 TL.

The increase in zucchini and cucumbers is around 50 percent.

A bunch of greens like parsley, arugula, and dill was around 15-20 TL last year; this year it has jumped to 20-30 TL.

Lemons, meanwhile, have taken flight.

While a kilo of lemons was sold for 100 TL in the Altınkum market last year, it has reached 260 TL this year.

Fruits, if one may say so, are on a different frequency.

The price increase is no small matter.

For example, last year, a kilo of cherries rarely fell below 80-100 TL depending on the variety. This year, it broke a record with an almost ten-fold increase. While a kilo was sold for 750-1000 TL, there were those who spent the summer months without putting a single cherry in their mouths.

Last year, a kilo of grapes was 50-80 TL depending on the variety. This year, it did not fall below 100 TL. Nectarines and peaches were sold for 60-80 TL, pears for 70-90 TL depending on the variety, and apricots for 60-80 TL again depending on the variety. This year, they are all looking for customers at almost double the price.

That is the picture...

Those who can go to the market can no longer fill their shopping bags to the brim as they used to. They buy just enough to satisfy the cravings of their children and return home.

That's it.

In the past, Turkey could feed itself in agriculture. And we used to be proud of this.

Now, there is neither proper production in agriculture nor money in the wallets of my country's people.