Southeast's 2023 staple food exports reach 3.8 billion dollars

The Southeast Anatolia region has become Turkey's top exporting region in the cereals, pulses, and oilseeds sector, which includes staple food products such as pasta, wheat flour, vegetable oils, biscuits, and cocoa products. Staple food exporters in the region, which increased their exports by 6.6 percent to 3.8 billion dollars, became the sector with the highest export volume in the Southeast Anatolia field of activity.

“WE WANT OUR NEIGHBORS TO EAT TURKISH BULGUR INSTEAD OF ASIAN RICE”

Stating that they have achieved a double success as both the region with the highest exports at the sectoral level and the sector with the highest exports in the Southeast, Celal Kadooğlu, President of the Southeastern Anatolia Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Exporters' Association, said the following:

“Our total export growth in 2023 was limited because our orders from Iraq and Syria, our two largest markets for staple food exports, declined. When we examine Iraq's Trademap data, we see an increase in this country's imports from Thailand in recent years. In 2022, Iraq's total rice imports exceeded 1 billion dollars. Iraq had made about 60 percent of this massive purchase from the Thai market. This process, which continued at the same momentum in the first half of last year, slowed down slightly from mid-summer due to the impact of problems in rice production on prices. We expect the upward trend in global rice prices, caused by drought issues in Asia linked to El Niño conditions, to continue throughout 2024. In this environment where the price of a ton of rice in international trade has reached 650 dollars, we believe that bulgur, which offers a price advantage of nearly 20 percent, is a better alternative. The Turkish Food Exporters brand, which we established by bringing together 6 exporter associations operating in the cereals, pulses, and oilseeds sector, is preparing promotional activities for bulgur. With the contribution of these activities, we believe that our neighbors will focus more on Turkish bulgur instead of Asian rice.”

“THERE ARE INCREASES IN UNIT PRICES OF BISCUITS, PASTA, AND SUGARY PRODUCTS”

Stating that the products that saw unit price increases in the Southeast's staple food exports this year were biscuits-pasta and sugar and sugar products, Kadooğlu expressed the following:

“You can see many manufacturers in different product groups at food fairs where companies from Gaziantep are heavy participants. The investments of our producers in the region, which have become branded in areas such as pasta, vegetable oil, and biscuits-pasta, provide great diversity. A buyer walking around the Turkish stands can find a contact who produces high-quality goods at world standards in almost every one of our product groups. Our specialty is that we can offer this quality at competitive prices and keep price-sensitive buyers satisfied. That is why we do not like to raise prices on our products unless we have to; we generally have to reflect our costs onto the products. This year, the highest price increases occurred in our biscuits-pasta and sugary products. The rise in sugar beet prices globally increased our export prices per kg for these products by about 10 percent. We use our cost-management power, provided by our production scales, especially in the domestic market. We try to provide better prices to our citizens in the country compared to imported equivalents. We believe that Southeast Anatolia will remain in first place in Turkey's staple food production and exports in 2024 as well.”

“SOUTH KOREA IS NEXT”

Stating that they organized a Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Sectoral Trade Delegation program to Seoul, South Korea, on January 14-19, 2024, in order to find new markets for exports and increase our share in foreign markets, Kadooğlu concluded his words as follows:

“We intend to introduce Turkish products to Asian countries with high purchasing power and to further increase the orders we receive from this region. We had bilateral meetings at the FHA held in Singapore last year, and we will strive to reach more buyers with the program we will carry out in Seoul.”