The Regional Agriculture Summit was organized under the coordination of the Agriculture, Food and Livestock Sector Board of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association (MÜSİAD), hosted by the MÜSİAD Ordu Branch.
The Regional Agriculture Summit, held at the Ramada Hotel under the coordination of the MÜSİAD Agriculture, Food and Livestock Sector Board and hosted by the MÜSİAD Ordu Branch, was attended by Governor Muammer Erol, MHP Ordu Deputy Naci Şanlıtürk, Ordu Metropolitan Mayor Dr. Mehmet Hilmi Güler, Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Kemal Yılmaz, Ordu Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Levent Karlıbel, Ordu Commodity Exchange President Ziver Kahraman, MÜSİAD Agriculture, Food and Livestock Sector Board Chairman Cemal Özen, non-governmental organizations and sector representatives, and MÜSİAD members. Ordu Governor Muammer Erol, together with Ordu Metropolitan Mayor Dr. Mehmet Hilmi Güler and the other protocol members, toured the stands opened by various companies in the foyer hall before the summit and received information.
Governor Muammer Erol, who delivered a speech at the Regional Agriculture Summit organized under the hosting of the MÜSİAD Ordu Branch, spoke as follows:” Our esteemed President said, ‘We have begun the second century of the Republic and this will be the Century of Türkiye.’ If it is to be the Century of Türkiye, it will be so only in this way. When we bring together our labour and our effort in a manner befitting us, God willing, the coming century and the one after it will also be our century. As our ancestors did, we will continue to be an example and a leader under the headings of first being human, being an upright person, and justice. I know that the efforts of all our producer brothers and sisters, and especially of everyone who has contributed at every stage of production for the producers we are speaking about here today in the field of agriculture, are also very valuable. In Ordu there is unity, there is beauty. As long as this continues, I hope that we will easily surpass the targets set before us.”
MHP Ordu Deputy Naci Şanlıtürk, for his part, said in his speech, “Hazelnut is everything to us. There are many issues concerning hazelnut that need to be discussed. In Parliament, as the deputies of the People's Alliance, we formed a working group. We held our first meeting in July. We will hold separate meetings with the representatives of the sector. There is work concerning honey as well. Our Minister of Agriculture is well informed on the matter. We need to increase bee products and their variety. Work can be done on this as well.”
Ordu Metropolitan Mayor Dr. Mehmet Hilmi Güler, who said that very important matters would be touched upon at the Agriculture Summit, spoke as follows: “We are carrying out our work in unity and solidarity under the presidency of our esteemed Governor. Hazelnut has been produced for 200 years, yet the only innovation is the threshing machine. We produce, but we have no say in the price mechanism. We have very great resources. If we make sufficient use of the resources we do not use through efficient work, we will triple Ordu's wealth,” he said.
MÜSİAD Agriculture, Food and Livestock Sector Board Chairman Cemal Özen, for his part, said in his speech that MÜSİAD's main vision in Türkiye is to ensure agricultural development and to carry out work aimed at increasing agricultural quality, and added, “The future of humanity and of nations lies in agriculture.
In the coming days it is an agenda in which the food nationalism that the pandemic too has taught us will be discussed. We are now on a road that leads not so much to who has which weapon or who has which technology, but to who has which food. Even if the conditions are difficult, our climate and our geography give us the opportunity to reach a very good point in agriculture,” he said, and underlined that the development of agricultural products passes through unions and that it is necessary to establish new unions and take action.
In the programme, Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Kemal Yılmaz, Ordu Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Levent Karlıbel and Ordu Commodity Exchange President Ziver Kahraman each delivered a speech as well. In the panel sessions organized at the Regional Agriculture Summit, the future of agriculture was addressed comprehensively.
At the summit, following the session “The Journey of Honey” moderated by Aksu Vital Chairman of the Board Yunus Aksu, the session “The Bounty of the Blue” moderated by Sağdıçlar Fisheries Chairman of the Board Veysel Sağdıç, and the general assessment made as a panellist by MÜSİAD Agriculture, Food and Livestock Sector Board Chairman Cemal Özen, the summit came to an end.
