President Abdurrahman Kaan shared his assessments with Türkiye Newspaper on the livestock sector in Türkiye and on the economic situation of our country.
Even though inflation has fallen to single digits, albeit through the “base effect”, consumers are seriously feeling the cost of living because of the price increases that have continued for months. Most recently, a 15 percent hike came to raw milk prices last week. The price per litre rose from TRY 2 to TRY 2.30. We discussed the issue with MÜSİAD President Abdurrahman Kaan, who has been operating in the dairy products sector for more than 40 years. Saying “We have plenty of pasture but feed production is insufficient”, Kaan said: “These price increases require us to attach far greater importance to feed, one of the largest imported inputs of dairy farming. We have significant imports in areas such as maize, soya and oilseed meal. Every fluctuation in the exchange rate is reflected immediately. In this sense, the rehabilitation of pastures is very important. As MÜSİAD, we also have exemplary cooperation projects on this subject together with the Ministry of Agriculture and TKDK. Now the feed producers will raise their prices right away. The villager will again make no profit. This has no sustainability. If we are talking about the fight against inflation, we must draw up a macro and sound programme for the production of feed in Türkiye. In other words, we have to produce the feed here. Otherwise, with imported feed, our costs will continue to run high. Today France produces 23 million tons of milk and exports dairy products equivalent to 40 percent of it. Our exports in dairy products are currently around 1-1.5 percent... We do not act with exports in mind in this field either. If we increase crop production in Türkiye and supply animal feed here, we will achieve the transformation on this issue,” he said.
More Expensive Than the World
Noting that the milk price hike will be reflected in dairy products around December, Kaan said: “We cannot pass it on exactly; in cheese it can only be around 10-11 percent. It is troublesome for us as well. There will be demand for goods at the old price. Because we have contracts. At the beginning of 2017 milk was TRY 1. Most recently it became TRY 2, and a further 15 percent came on top of it. The price that has now formed in Türkiye has risen above the world average. It is 35 cents in Europe, 42 cents here!.. What is more, their milk is of better quality. Apart from this, the hike in electricity is 130 percent plus another 15 percent... The minimum wage was TRY 980, now it is TRY 2,020, and it will increase again at the beginning of the year. This issue is very important for our people to be able to eat healthily. Meat and milk are foods that strengthen the immune system. We, however, feed mainly on plant-based and flour-based products. This time our illnesses are increasing.”
We Must Be Realistic and Change
Emphasizing that a rapid transformation is taking place in the world, Abdurrahman Kaan said: “In 1990 the EU’s share in world trade was 30 percent, last year it was 22... The United States is protecting itself at around 20-21. China has risen from 2 percent to 16 percent. It has taken it from the others. While international trade is changing like this, we cannot merely watch. At the moment we have our chambers and our commodity exchanges. But we look and see that we are proceeding with the same standards; we cannot get anywhere like this. We have to be realistic. The business world must renew itself. If we do not increase production, our power will not increase either,” he said.
We Work Like a Lobby in 94 Countries
Stating that they are present in 87 locations in Türkiye including districts, and in 94 countries and 224 locations worldwide, Kaan said: We receive micro information from everywhere. When you hold field information, you can plan the future more accurately. We take the right decisions accordingly. Our friends in those countries carry out lobbying by working like citizens of those places. Our representative, together with the embassy, also organized our President’s South Africa programme. Because our friends are there. We regard these as our duty.