For the production of raw materials, which are important for feed production, Contracted production between the feed sector and producers for the production of raw materials, which are important for feed production, should be promoted, and there should be ways for such producers to utilize from various incentives. So, instead of importing feed, local producers can be directed to raise feed plants.
Hasan KARA
Coordinator
Yay-Tar Tarım Ürünleri ve Yem Hammaddeleri
The agricultural sector has an organic unity with vegetative and animal production. These two sub-sectors are complementary; they are dependent on each other in terms of their main and subsidiary products. Agricultural enterprises, especially which are carrying out vegetative and animal production together, better evaluate products, which are produced through livestock, workforce and meet cash flow whenever needed. This is a factor that reduces the risk of agriculture.
The livestock sector, which has an important role in people’s adequate and balanced nutrition, has important economic and social factors such as increasing national income and employment, providing raw material for meat, milk, textile, leather, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, contributing to balanced development, preventing and decreasing open and hidden unemployment at rural areas, attributing development and industrialization finance to equity, easing the effects of migration and social distress, which is the result of migration, and preventing of these.
Today, balanced and healthy nutrition is a sign of a level of development. If one considers that 50 percent of required protein for balanced and healthy nutrition is met from red meat, poultry meat, milk, egg and processed products, one can understand that the development of livestock sector, quality of animal and the feed industry for the livestock sector’s efficiency.
There has been an important agro-industry arm in Turkey, which has been showed among major countries because of the potential of livestock sector but has not gotten enough shares from this sector so far, with the feed industry, number of established factories with high available capacity. Turkey’s livestock sector faced with shortage of quality roughage as there have been less rangeland – existing rangelands are losing their qualities because of irregular use – and the cultivation area for feed plants are very inadequate. In regard to these shortfalls, the number of animal has been increasing. In many parts of the country, the growing of feed plants such as clover, vetch, trefoil and bitter vetch has been in parallel with the progress of livestock in the country, but this cultivation came up from behind and was with lower growth. Now, in feed plantation, more and less same plants with traditional production methods have been in place. Raw materials used in production of compound feed have been foreign-dependent because of inadequate production of some raw materials, lack of technology and quality standard and higher price of raw materials. This leads to an increase in price of import because of exchange rate, and thus causing an increase in the compound mix and continual drop in purchasing power of breeders.
The high volatility in the exchange rate in 2015-2016 had serious effects on feed prices because the most important cost items in compound feed inputs are raw materials, and raw material prices are affected by seasonal drought, speculative movements and import dependency, 50-60 percent of raw materials used in production of compound feed are imported and the foreign exchange is taken into account when deciding on the price of compound feed. Even so, in the very first quarter of 2018, this effect has been felt. Recent increases in labor costs have also led to an increase in feed costs.
The highest percentage of raw materials being exported is barley. However, the most eye-catching aspect of the barley is that in some years due to foreign exchange, the price of import is higher than the export, and thus leading currency loss for Turkey. In 2017, barley imports exceeded 300 thousand tons (Table 2). In the import of raw materials, corn and its derivatives, sunflower seeds, soybean meals, DDGS and bran are the main products. Sunflower seeds and soybean meals are imported because of lack of production while bran, corn and barley etc. are imported because of imported product’s competitive price.
As a result of production inadequacy in cotton, sunflower and soybean, raw materials in the production of poultry feed are largely met through import. It is worrisome to see that these products are imported more and more during the last two years. When one considers the total cultivation area for feed plants in Turkey (Table 3) and the fact that two million tons of feed plants has been raised in 2016 while the total produced of compound feed is twenty million tons in the same year, one can think that this rise in the production of feed is largely met from import.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute’s data (2017) on the production of feed plants, the total cultivated area of feed plants was 1.57 million decares in 2010 while this has been increased to 1.94 million decares. This statistic shows that between 2010 and 2016, the increase in the area of feed plants was 23.31 percent and the annual growth rate of compound growth was 1.69 percent. Based on this static, three out of four of 83 percent increase between 2010 and 2016 is the result of import inputs. According to this, the growth of the feed plants is about 2-4 per cent per year, but the growth seems to be accelerating. In 2012, the plantation of feed crops, which showed a large increase of about 28 percent compared to the previous year, has been following a horizontal course for the last four years.
However, when considering logarithmic increase curve in yearly total cultivated area, one can think that Turkey can pass the record 1.96 million decares of feed plantation in 2012, and there can be high increase in the total cultivation area in Turkey.
Today, however, compound feed production is still very important for the development of animal husbandry. An important part of animal husbandry expenses is feed expenses. The total compound feed production in Turkey as of 2017 showed a significant increase of 9.8 percent compared to the previous year; a considerable increase of 245 percent has been achieved when the last ten years have been taken into consideration. For this reason, most of the domestic consumption is covered by imports.
Contracted production between feed sector and producers for the production of raw materials, which are important for feed production, should be promoted, and there should be ways for such producers to utilize from various incentives. So, instead of import, local producers can be directed to raise feed plants.
REFERENCES
• Alltech. (2017). 2017 Alltech Global Feed Survey.
• GKGM. (2018). Gıda ve Kontrol Verileri (31 Mart 2018 itibariyle): Yem İşletmeleri Tablosu, Gıda ve Kontrol Genel Müdürlüğü, Ankara.
• Ülkü KARAKUŞ. (2008). Türkiye’de Karma Yem Üretimi ve Sorunlar.
• TÜİK, 2018. Yem Bitkileri Üretimi, 1988-2017. Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu