CHP Chair Özel sets a price for hazelnuts after tea: 'Announced it in dollars'

CHP Chair Özgür Özel's fourth stop in the Eastern Black Sea region before the March 31 Local Elections was Giresun.

Speaking from his campaign bus at Atatürk Square, Özel asked for votes for his party's mayoral candidates in Giresun's center and its districts. Özel said, “Giresun is undoubtedly the place where the world's most beautiful and highest-quality hazelnuts are produced, but the hazelnut producer's troubles never end.

Diesel that was 4 liras has become 19 TL. An objection to this needs to be raised from Giresun. With diesel at 44 TL, there is no agriculture, no hazelnut farming, and no livelihood. There is something they have forgotten for a long time: SCT and VAT. It is unacceptable that diesel, which is provided without SCT and VAT to luxury yachts, excursion boats, and ships in the seas off the Aegean and in Antalya, is given to farmers today at 44 liras. 70 percent of the world's hazelnut production takes place in Turkey, and the highest quality of this is produced in Giresun, yet we only have an export revenue of 2 billion dollars from hazelnuts. That is, there is a market of 120-130 billion dollars.

"YOU WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED"

With a simple calculation, a 100 billion dollar market should be ours. We have 2 billion, the rest of the world states have the rest. So, if we got our fair share from this hazelnut, if Ordu, Bartın, Zonguldak, Giresun, and Trabzon got their fair share from this hazelnut, you would never be defeated. You would be the richest producers in the world. But the math is clear: one-fiftieth of the 100 billion market goes to us, and 49 out of 50 parts go to global giant cartels.

On one hand, there are problems with 2B lands. They are trying to take our hazelnut orchards from our hands. On the other hand, another issue we consider very important is area-based support. They give 170 TL per decare in area-based support. If you have a 10-decare orchard, they give 1,700 TL.

They have been giving the same money for 10 years; 10 years ago diesel was 2 TL 60 kuruş, you give 170 TL. Today diesel is 44 TL, you still give 170 TL. This area-based support must be increased immediately, product-based supports must be increased immediately, all transactions below a price of 4 dollars must be prohibited, criminal sanctions must be applied in this regard, and hazelnut farming must be supported to the end,” he said.

"THE LOWEST PENSION SHOULD BE THE MINIMUM WAGE"

Stating that the lowest pension should be the minimum wage, Özel said, “When the Justice and Development Party came to power 22 years ago, the lowest pension was one and a half times the minimum wage. That is, if they hadn't touched you at all, if they hadn't interfered at all, the minimum wage today would be 17 thousand TL. You would have been receiving a pension of 26 thousand TL.

God is my witness, 26 thousand TL would not have been a bad pension at all for the lowest one. So today they are giving you 59 percent of the minimum wage, and this is not something small.

Look, on November 3, 2002, if the retiree receiving the lowest pension withdrew their pension and went to the jeweler here, they would buy exactly 8 quarter gold coins. Today, you cannot buy 2 and a half quarter gold coins with 10 thousand liras. That is, 5 and a half quarter gold coins are missing,” he said.