Did increasing food exports prevent the impoverishment of farmers?

I had learned about the study titled “How Did Turkey, Which Is Declining in Agriculture, Become an Exporter in Food?” by economist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Karaçimen and subsequently accessed the relevant work.

Karaçimen’s study exposes the “sorry and miserable state”—to use the old expression—of Turkish agriculture and our food industry, which lies at the foundation of Turkey’s externally dependent neoliberal policies.

According to Karaçimen, How Has Food Export Increased and What Has Been the Cost?

• “The Turkish food industry has the characteristic of importing agricultural raw materials and selling these products abroad by processing them with low labor costs. However, the surplus value it produces does not remain in the country. Those who seize the surplus value largely transfer it abroad. Turkey stands at the processing and distribution link of this chain; meanwhile, domestic production capacity is declining, and the country is becoming a market for foreign producers.

• Multinational companies operating in Turkey’s food and agricultural sector, such as Cargill, Bunge, Olam, ADM, CP Standard, and BRF, mostly do not make greenfield investments but rather acquire existing local firms. These companies operate in every link of the supply chain, including seed and fertilizer production, processing, storage, and distribution, in addition to processed product manufacturing. This situation also shapes Turkey’s position within the international division of labor.

• Despite the growth of Turkey’s food sector, domestic capital accumulation is not strengthening. Growth is achieved by purchasing raw materials from abroad and sending processed products abroad; a large portion of the surplus value in the chain accumulates in the coffers of global companies.

• In summary, Turkey is a country held captive by an imperialism-dependent, neoliberal model amidst the deepening global food crisis and food security problems as a link in the global food chain.”

What Is the Situation of Agriculture and Farmers While Food Exports Increase?(*)

I share Karaçimen’s views and findings.

For years, in the articles I have written, I have been one of the agriculturalists trying to bring to light the state of agriculture and the food sector under externally dependent neoliberal policies. In this context, I find it useful to reiterate the dilemmas agriculture is in.

• Arable agricultural land in Turkey has decreased. In 2002, the total agricultural area was at the level of approximately 26.5 - 26.6 million hectares. As of 2024, it has declined to 24 million 24 thousand hectares. In the agricultural land that has shrunk by 9.6 percent since 2002, a loss of more than 2.5 million hectares (approximately the size of Ankara’s surface area) has been experienced. Fallow areas fell to 2 million 655 thousand hectares in 2024.

On a product basis, for example, while wheat cultivation areas were 9.3 million hectares in 2002, wheat cultivation areas in Turkey have declined to approximately 6.7 to 7.5 million hectares in the 2024 production season.

• Along with the decrease in agricultural land, the number of people working in agriculture has fallen. According to TUIK data, while the number of people working in the agricultural sector was 7 million 458 thousand in 2002, this number was approximately 4.56 million in 2025. In the last 23 years, 2 million 898 thousand people have lost their jobs in the agricultural sector. This situation has accelerated the flow of people who have quit farming to the cities. However, because the growth rate in the industry and service sectors in cities was not sufficient, migration from agriculture caused the existing unemployment rate to increase even further, and the resulting poverty created a charity economy.

• In 1980, Turkey’s population was 44.7 million, the number of cattle was 15.8 million head, and the number of sheep was 49 million head. Accordingly, the number of cattle per person was around 0.35, and the number of sheep was 1.09. In 2025, Turkey’s population is 86 million. When the number of refugees, which is around 3.2 million, is added to this number, our population has reached 89.4 million. In the same year, it is reported that the number of cattle is 17.79 million head and the number of sheep is 46.7 million head. Accordingly, it is observed that the number of cattle per person has declined to 0.19 head and the number of sheep to 0.52 head in 2025.

• Imports of agricultural products have gained speed. Between 2002 and 2025, agricultural product exports amounted to 125.5 billion dollars, while agricultural imports amounted to 182.5 billion dollars. The foreign trade deficit is 57 billion dollars. By paying 57 billion dollars more for imports, foreign farmers have been enriched. In other words, the “Poor Turkish Farmer” has helped the “Rich Western Farmer.”

On a product basis, approximately 105 million tons of wheat were imported between 2003 and 2024. Over 29 billion dollars were paid for these imports. While Turkey could be self-sufficient in wheat imports until the 2000s, it has become one of the world’s largest wheat-importing countries today. This import has been a record of the Republican era. In the same period, 552 million dollars were paid for the import of 1.1 million tons of sugar.

There has also been a rapid increase in animal imports. In the last 15 years, a total of 531 billion liras (approximately 15.5 billion dollars) has been paid for live animal and red meat imports. In 2025, Turkey carried out the second-highest live animal import in its history, importing 739 thousand 706 head of animals.

• Some farmers have been forced to change their cropping patterns. For example, farmers who could not make money from cotton turned to corn silage and alfalfa for livestock. This brought cotton imports to the agenda. Between 2002 and 2024, Turkey’s cotton imports showed a general upward trend due to domestic production failing to meet consumption, and Turkey entered the ranks of the world’s largest cotton importers. As of 2025, Turkey imported over 1 million tons of cotton and paid around 1 billion 727 million dollars in foreign currency for these imports. According to reports published as of April 2026, Turkey has reached a state where it meets 75 percent of its cotton needs through imports.

How Is Turkey, Which Is Declining in Agriculture, Paying the Price for Being an Exporter in Food?

• There has been an explosion in agricultural raw material imports (vegetable raw materials, live animals and carcasses, fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, etc.).

• Those farming in small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises based on family labor have become impoverished. Their dependence on foreign and domestic monopolies under the guidance of international capital has increasingly grown while buying seeds, applying fertilizers, and selling their products.

• The food industry has come under the control of foreign companies and companies dependent on foreigners.

• Access to healthy food for the consumer has also become increasingly impossible.

• With the erosion of rural areas, numerous problems ranging from infrastructure issues to unemployment have increased in our cities.

Is There an Option to Break the Dependence in Agriculture and Its Product, Food?

Turkey has two options in agricultural production, just as it does in other branches of the economy.

The first option: To continue the agricultural model in the context of an economic policy based on the import of intermediate goods and raw materials. This is what is being implemented—to the extent permitted and approved by central countries—agricultural production will be.

The second option: Passes through producing an Import-Substituting and more egalitarian economic policy and “Agricultural Policies” linked to this model. The model must also be a “Planned Development Model” that is human-nature oriented, protects the environment, provides healthy food from its natural resources, and is at peace with itself. In this context, one of the fundamental issues is the state’s intervention in the economy for the producing majority by re-establishing the masses.

In other words, the fundamental option is to realize this development action based on its own power, turning toward independence, without receiving the approval of capitalist centers, or more clearly, imperialists.

It is possible to change the unchangeable approach of the neoliberal system. To the extent that we believe the solution lies within ourselves and we organize, this is possible. The “most vivid example before us is the Republic we realized under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”

Two important pillars of Republican action must be re-established.

The first of these is the production of national policies. National policies will be achieved through the consensus that all national classes and strata will create together.

The second is the implementation of these policies to be created. This can only be realized with a mixed economic model where planning and statism are heavy.

The power to be created through the organization of producers in the agricultural sector will also be one of the fundamental powers of the national program.

(*)Kaymakçı, M., 2025. Turkish Agriculture (Imperialist Attack and Solutions). Pankuş Publications; Kaymakçı, M., 2026. Turkish Agriculture: Causes of the Collapse in Agricultural Production and Ways to Solve It. Dağarcık Turkey 2026 Yearbook. In press