How did starch-based sugar enter Turkey's agenda?

Journalist Murat Ağırel brought the issue to the agenda with his article titled “Starch-based syrup: The poison poured onto our tables” dated August 22, 2026, in Cumhuriyet newspaper, stating, “I have two separate state reports in front of me. One is the audit report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Sugar Department. The other is the investigation by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance’s Tax Inspection Board. The issue is this: They have been feeding citizens sweets, jams, honey, Turkish delight, and halva containing tons of starch-based syrup, even exceeding the unregistered quota.” I congratulate Murat Ağırel for raising a vital issue for public health.

First, let's make an observation. Today, there are those who claim that starch-based sugar is cheaper than sugar produced from beets and that sugar produced from beets is insufficient. According to reports reflected in the newspapers, the parties blame each other for the problem that has emerged, while the public sector claims that there is a problem with sugar due to price hikes by private sector factories.

In this context, it is useful to look at the history of the question “How Did Starch-Based Sugar Enter Turkey's Agenda?” Because it is not possible to illuminate our present and future without knowing the past.

How Did Starch-Based Sugar Enter Turkey's Agenda?

At the root of the problem lies the privatization of sugar production in connection with imperialism.

Until the 2000s, Turkey produced its sugar from sugar beets. From these years on, it was said that “sugar production from sugar beets is expensive, sugar factories are losing money,” and with the “Sugar Law,” the first of 15 laws enacted through Kemal Derviş, who was imported from the USA by politicians in a deep slumber, privatizations would begin and quotas would be imposed on sugar.

It is necessary to know Kemal Derviş well in the context of privatization efforts. He was made a state minister by the Ecevit Government(*) in 2001 with the aim of saving the Turkish economy (!). With 15 laws in 15 days, quotas were imposed on beets and tobacco, the sale of sugar and tobacco factories was facilitated, restrictions on imports were lifted in favor of foreign monopolies, and foreigners were allowed to enter public tenders. Kemal Derviş rapidly enacted 15 laws such as the “International Arbitration Law, Telecommunications Law, Sugar Law, Tobacco Law, Salt Law, Natural Gas Market Law, Central Bank Law, Banking Law, Civil Aviation Law, Expropriation Law, Budget Amendment Law, Duty Losses” and the law providing for the liquidation of some funds, “Supplementary Budget Law, Tender Law, Economic and Social Council Law.”

Laws such as the Sugar Law, Tobacco Law, and Salt Law were directly related to agriculture and food.

However, it is also necessary to touch upon the content of three laws indirectly related to them. With the “International Arbitration Law,” it was ensured that disputes arising from concession specifications and contracts related to public services involving a foreign element could be taken to international courts. National will was transferred to imperialist centers. With the Tender Law, the restrictions imposed on foreigners for public tenders were lifted. Subsequently, the state was riddled with holes through tender laws that were amended many times. No state business was left that was not put out to tender. With the Economic and Social Council Law, a center was created to supervise unions. The organization where the public, workers, and employer organizations met was named the Economic and Social Council.

However, years later, in an interview he gave in 2014, Kemal Derviş made a confession saying, “They Forced Us to Privatize” and explained that “…Later I came to the USA and President Bush’s Treasury Secretary welcomed me very coldly… He said, ‘There is no need for a loan at all.’ If you don’t know, ‘let me help you with privatization. But when you privatize, you will sell, you will sell at whatever price the market gives. If you take an attitude like we won’t sell this cheap, then you can’t achieve anything.’” (See: www.egitimajansi.com/haber/kemal-dervisten-itiraflar), actually trying to cover up the international task assigned to him.

This function of Derviş would be confirmed years later by one of the former ministers, and a right-leaning one at that, Güneş Taner. Taner said the following about Kemal Derviş: “He had a special task. By cutting down domestic capital, he opened the doors wide to foreigners. Banks and insurance companies changed hands” (See: www.ensonhaber.com/kemal-dervis ve catherina-40 milyar-dolari-ne yapti)

What happened with the Sugar Quota?

With the Kemal Derviş Laws, the production of sugar-like substances obtained from plants other than beets, such as corn, in short, Starch-Based Sugar (SBS), was made possible. We call their share in total sugar production a “Quota.”

The quota was initially 10%. While expectations were for this high rate to be reduced as in the EU because it is harmful to health, the SBS quota was increased from 10% to 15% with the draft law submitted by the government to the Turkish Grand National Assembly on April 8, 2013. However, it was known that the quota rate in EU countries varied between 0-4%.

What is the connection of sugar to imperialism?

At the beginning of the article, I said that the economic aspect of the issue is connected to imperialism. First; it is related to the melting of corn stocks, especially those in the hands of the USA.

Second; it is the EU's connection with Middle Eastern markets. When sugar production from sugar beets decreased in Turkey, these markets would be left primarily to EU countries, and that is what happened. For example, France. France, which has an annual sugar consumption of 2 million tons, continues to produce 4.5 million tons/year of sugar because it is in its interest. The target was the Middle Eastern markets.

Starch-Based Sugar consumption harms our health.

The third was even more terrifying. Diseases that arise with the increase in SBS consumption. Let's elaborate on this a bit.

In Turkey, SBS is produced from corn. Corn syrup turns into fructose in the body. Fructose negatively triggers insulin resistance. It leads to many chronic diseases, from cancer to heart disease and liver failure, especially diabetes and obesity.

SBS production in Turkey is mainly under the control of five companies(**). The price of corn syrup is 250-300 dollars cheaper per ton compared to sugar beet sugar and can be marketed as a liquid. For these reasons, it is widely used in the sugar food industry such as confectionery, bakery products, jam, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

While the consumption of SBS is decreasing in the EU and the world, it is rising in Turkey. While per capita SBS consumption in Turkey is 6 kg, this amount is around 1 kg in the EU.

In short, we have nothing to say to those who complain about sugar without knowing the past and seeing the share of imperialism, and to those who still defend privatization.

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(*)Bülent Ecevit shone like a star in the social democracy version of the Turkish left and became famous as “Karaoğlan” (Black Boy), who would change the corrupt order. However, over time, ignoring imperial contradictions, he began to promote a Swedish-style social democracy. During his last prime ministry, he invited someone like Kemal Derviş, a representative of international finance capitalism, to Turkey to get the economy on its feet. He ensured that the state, especially with Derviş’s privatization policies, was unconditionally integrated into the imperial capitalist system. Towards the end, he became so mystical that he would praise FETÖ, and even reached the stage of saying “I cannot call him a traitor” to Vahdeddin, who approved the execution fatwa of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk). Even if the masses who loved him remember him as “he did not eat state property,” the judgment of history will evaluate statesmen by where they brought the country.

(**)These companies consisted of “Cargill (USA), Amylum (British and US Partnership), PNS (Cargill and Ülker Partnership), Tat Nişasta, and Sunar Mısır Entegre.”