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Diesel and expensive raw material raise feed prices

23 January 20184 min reading

Stating that Turkish feed sector produces feed with a price above the world average, Ulku Karakus, President of TÜRKİYEM-BİR, attributed this to expensive raw materials and diesel that they used. "We expend 10 percent of our turnover to diesel. We pay 270 dollars for corn which is 170 dollars in the global markets," he Karakuş said.

ulku-karakus

Ülkü Karakuş, Chairman of Turkish Feed Industrialists’ Association (TÜRKİYEM-BİR) attended the Bovine and Ovine Breeding Workshop organized by Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in Antalya, made a statement on feed prices. Karakus expressed that common problem in animal husbandry in Turkey was 'expensive feed' and it has been tried to be solved for many years. Karakus said in recent years they have started to procure the raw materials used in feed production on the cheap and added that this will gradually lower the prices. Highlighting that feed produced by Turkish feed industry is more expensive than the world average, Karakuş said, "But Turkish feed industry will produce in accordance with the raw material prices, make them industrial products and sell them to the breeder. The real problem in Turkey is high prices of feed raw materials. We use barley, corn, wheat, rye, oats, sunflower, soybean, and canola cossene in feed. Their costs for us are above the world average. In Turkey, high prices are paid for wheat, barley and corn in order to protect the producer. As a consequence, the price of, for instance, corn per ton is 175 dollars in the world and 270 dollars in Turkey. Due to this difference, a high price arises.” Underlining that high price complaints have been made for years and not resolving the problem, Ülkü Karakuş continued his words as follows: "We must first increase the amount of irrigable land while using modern agricultural techniques, biotechnology to reap the maximum amount of crop from unit area. We should pay attention to these 3 main issues. We are a society that is migrating from the village to the city. When we get to the city from the village, we are getting away from the arable land. When these people do not produce, the price arises at the point where the supply intersects the demand. People are immigrating to metropolises. People start to purchase this feed through transport since there is no production in the villages anymore. One of the highest costs for Turkish producer is diesel costs. Diesel is bought at very high prices in Turkey. We use them for transportation. In the feed sector, we pay nearly 10 percent of the annual turnover to transportation. This is a big amount. Why do we pay? Because our average diesel costs are above the world average."

NOBODY CAN CONSIDER WHAT IS BEST FOR MEAT AND MILK PRODUCERS MORE THAN US Karakuş emphasized that the number of small-scale enterprises is decreasing every year and said "Grain Board has recently made some decisions that are for the benefit of breeders. Feed is expensive but its share in the total cost of fattening is decreasing day by day. This has a lot to do with feed purchases with low prices from abroad conducted by TGB. TGS’s promise about the continuation of these purchases gives hope to us. We started to find cheaper raw materials compared to previous years. This will continue in 2018 as well. This low price will also be reflected in feed prices over time.” Saying that agriculture is a profitable sector, Ülkü Karakuş, President of TÜRKİYEM-BİR drew attention to the following error: "When we turn on the TV we hear about hyperinflation, tomatoes, pepper, eggplant, meat. But when the price goes down, nobody stands by these products. When tomato prices increase up to 6 liras, we say, “Wow tomato is 6 liras!” However, when it falls to 50 kuruş, nobody stands by it. This has to be the core of the matter. People who are engaged in agricultural activities should get regular and sufficient money. We should always think of it as a whole. Feed producers sell the products to meat and milk producers. Nobody can consider what is best for meat and milk producers more than us. Because we'll get the money from them. We sell the product to them. In the last one or two years, there has been a will in this direction, our costs will decrease day by day."

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