"Compound feed industry in Turkey is a dynamic sector which had an important growth in the last 10 years with an annual average growth rate of 12 %. There are 521 feed plants operating in Turkey today. When we look at feed production; in 2015, a total of 20,1 million ton compound feed was produced of which 10,4 million ton was for cattle, 9,1 million was for poultry and 0,6 million ton was for other feed." Compound feed sector in Turkey gains attention with its growth graphic in recent years. Executive Chair of Turkish Feed Industrialists' Union (Turkiyem-Bir), M. Ulku KARAKUS has said that the compound feed industry had an average of 12 % growth annually in the last 10 years; and that Turkey has the 12th place in the world and 5th place in Europe with its annual compound feed production of 20,1 million tons. KARAKUS said: "When we consider the growth speed of our sector, it is anticipated to have a spot in top 10 of the world and top 3 of EU." KARAKUS also reminded that the most important barrier for Turkey to step forward in compound feed export is the raw materials for feed. Ulku KARAKUS has stated that Turkey is highly dependent to foreign countries in terms of feed raw materials and that the increase in plant production is way behind the growth in feed industry. We have talked with Turkiyem-Bir Chair Ulku KARAKUS about the development, potential and problems of the sector. Dear Karakus, can you please provide us information about Turkish Feed Industrialists' Union? How many members do you have, who are your members and what are your activities in the feed sector as a union? What is the percentage of Turkish feed industry that you present? Turkish Feed Industrialists' Union was established in 1974 under the name of "Feed Industrialists Union Association" by 7 fed industrialists, following the Feed Law No. 1734 came into effect. Our association has had the title Turkey with the Decision of Council of Ministers in 1998 and has been active for more than 40 years with the name "Turkish Feed Industrialists' Union". Our Union guides all types of institutions and their members involved in compound feed production in terms of occupational, social, technical and economic aspects; helps to develop the production in a way which is appropriate and efficient for public good, defends the rights of its members against private and legal entities and acts as a mechanism to transmit the problems of the sector and suggestions for solution to the related authorities. According to our Covenant; the real and legal entities that own a compound feed plant which was approved and registered by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in accordance with Law on Veterinary Services, Plant Health, Food and Feed can become our members. The main condition of being a member is to own a registered and approved feed factory with the required license. As of 2016, our union has 164 feed plants as members. The feed production in these factories constitutes 80 % of total compound feed production in Turkey. Can you please provide us some information about the compound feed industry in Turkey, according to the data you have? What are the types of feed produced in Turkey and what is the amount of those? How many businesses and companies are there in Turkey that produce feed? Compound feed industry in Turkey is a dynamic sector which had an important growth in the last 10 years with an annual average growth rate of 12 %. Compound feed have various structures and they are produced with the most appropriate costs in order to meet the requirements of animals according to their type, yield and age. Today, there are 521 feed factories operating in Turkey; and they are mostly located in Aegean, Marmara and Central Anatolia regions. When we look at feed production; in 2015, a total of 20,1 million ton compound feed was produced of which 10i4 million ton was for cattle, 9,1 million was for poultry and 0,6 million ton was other feed. 35 % of the total compound feed production of Turkey is executed in Aegean region, whereas 25 % in Marmara, 17 % in Central Anatolia and the remaining 23 % distributed in other regions. What can you say about the technological infrastructures and capacity utilization rates of feed factories in Turkey? Does the Turkish feed industry have a problem of idle capacity? May we learn what you think about the reasons of this problem and your opinion on solutions? When we look at 5-10 years ago, we can see that the compound feed factories mostly consisted of small capacity ones such as 1-10 tons/hour. But, factors such as the development of animal husbandry and increase of export possibilities have increased the need for compound feed and this has encouraged the establishment of factories with higher capacities. In order to explain this with an example; 88 % of the compound feed factories in Turkey by 2010 were ones with less than 21 ton/hour capacity; and we see that this rate has become 80 % by the end of 2015. Again, there were only 10 compound feed factories in Turkey with a capacity higher than 50 tons / hour 5 years ago, and today we see this number has increased to 24. The capacities of newly installed feed factories are usually higher than 20-30 tons/hour. As the know-how for feed technology has increased among the domestic machinery producers in our sector; some compound feed factories have started to prefer complete domestic production machinery. There are also feed factories that produce only by using foreign machinery or a mix of domestic and foreign. The capacity utilization rate in our country is 100 %, when calculated from a single shift. But, when we calculate it from double shift, we see that our capacity utilization rate is 58 %. We anticipate that the factories with relatively little capacity will shut down in future years an there will be a decrease in the total number of compound feed factories, but the existing capacity will not change at all. The replacement of small capacity compound feed factories with high capacity ones is a trend which is widely seen in developing countries. What is the position of Turkish feed industry in the world in terms of technology utilization, capacity, quality and export? What do you think about the future position of Turkey in world feed market? The compound feed sector of Turkey has an annual production of 20,1 million tons and it has the 12th place in world and 5th place in Europe. When we consider the growth speed in our sector, we anticipate that it will have the spot in top ten in world and top 3 in EU. Almost all of the feed produced in our sector is consumed in the domestic market. Our compound feed export is not at the desired level yet. In 2014, 223 thousand tons with a value of 108 million dollars and in 2015, 133 thousand tons with a value of 71 million dollars of compound feed was exported. In the first quarter of 2016, 44 thousand tons of compound feed with a value of 20 million dollars was exported. The high price of compound feed raw materials in Turkey is one of the most significant factors that negatively affects our competition in terms of export. We usually export to geographically closer countries. Iraq and Syria are at the top of the list. Countries such as Georgia, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are among our export markets. In order to increase the competitive power of Turkey in compound feed export, the sector has to access the feed raw material with worldwide prices. In order to achieve this, it is suggested to implement world price premium system in plant production and to solve the problems of internal processing. As you have mentioned, feed raw materials has been a problematic issue for Turkish feed industry. What is the position of Turkey today in terms of feed raw materials today? Due to some reasons such as the population increase above the world average and increase in national income level; our need for quality food, including the protein sources, increase day by day. Within this context, we need a planning to use the limited feed resources in the most efficient way in order to provide the self-sufficiency in animal production, to supply the animal products with appropriate prices and to increase our potential for export. Problems faced in supply of feed raw materials are among the most important problems of the sector. As the increase in feed production is higher than the plant production; the imports of feed raw materials increase each year. Oily seeds and residues, brans, corns and corn derivatives and DDGS are among the imported feed raw material. 6 million tons of corn is produced annually in our country and 1,5 million tons of corn is being imported. The case for oily seeds is very perilous. 3,5 million tons oily seed plant is produced annually in our country; but 4,3 million tons oily seed and residue is imported. Most of this difference is because of the need for soy. Soy is one of the main raw materials for poultry feed and its annual production in Turkey is around 150 thousand tons; whereas the import of soy and its residue is around 2,6-3 million tons. Competition on these products increase every day in the world. As China has participated in world feed raw material as a major buyer, the prices of mentioned feed raw material have been increasing on a yearly basis. Therefore, the feed industry in our country pays very high prices for the import of these products and the costs of feed and husbandry increases. Similarly, our country is almost completely foreign-dependent in terms of food additives such as vitamins, minerals and enzymes. The turnover of compound feed sector today is approximately 9 billion USD and 3 billion of this is done through import. Many agricultural products used as the feed raw materials (such as grain and legumes) are also used for direct human consumption. Does this limit the raw material sources for feed sector? Can we consider the by-products of other grain and legume based food sectors as a solution for raw material? Compound feed sector functions as a bridge between the plant production and animal production; and it is an intermediate sector that transforms the feed grain, brans, oily seed residues from plant production and other by-products from food industry into feed by mixing with feed additives such as minerals and vitamins in a way to generate the most appropriate food ingredient and cost, by considering the needs of animals in certain periods. In this sense, our sector processes the products of food industry and other several industries which are considered as idle; and transform those into quality products and animal products. Wheat is the most produced substance in food industry; and in our industry barley and corn are used more intensely. As for the oily seeds, sunflower is used intensely in oil industry and our sector uses the residues from that. Therefore, there is no competition between the feed and food industries in terms of grain and oily seeds; and the both sectors complete each other. What do you think that other important problems in Turkish feed sector are? Do you have any suggestions for short and long-term solutions of these problems? One of the most important problems in our sector stems from transgenic, in other words, GMO products. The production of products we use in our sector which are mostly foreign-dependent, such as soy, corn, DDGS, canola usually have transgenic structures. In order to import such items, they need to be approved within the framework of Biosafety legislation in Turkey. But, some problems are experienced in terms implementation as the Biosafety Law contains very extreme penal provisions without considering the aspects of intention and neglect, missing points in definitions and the contradictions during application and evaluation processes and biotechnology companies do not make any new applications for the approval of their transgenic products. Another aspect is the fact that GMO products are used as feed in the whole world. During the period when there was a problem in soy import; 3 types of soy and 13 types of corn were approved in Turkey. But today, only 7 transgenic soy and 25 transgenic corn types (a total of 32), approved by the European Union are approved by Biosafety Board and permitted by the Ministry in Turkey in order to utilize in animal feed only. These new approvals have partially solved the problem. But, when compared with USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan and EU countries; the number of approved transgenic products in our country is very low and there is risk of contamination of unapproved transgenic products to our deliveries during our feed raw material import from other countries with various approved transgenic products. This causes our ships to be rejected. In order to overcome these problems and to set our raw material flow into an order; Biosafety legislation needs to be revised through a collaborative work by the Ministries, civil society organizations and universities in order to transform it into a more realistic one. Let us focus on GFFC 5th World Feed and Food Congress in Antalya this year. This congress was organized in Turkey for the first time under your host. What was the importance of the congress being held in Turkey? Some of the most important factors for organizing the 5th World Feed and Food Congress in Turkey are the rapid development of Turkish feed sector, our membership to Federation of European Feed Industrialists (FEFAC), the attention received from global institutions such as FEFAC, IFIF (International Feed Industry Federation) and FAO, and most importantly, the central position of Turkey within the geographical region in terms of historical and cultural relations. Some of the indicators that the congress has gained great attention were more than 1000 participants to World Feed and Food Congress, having many companies as sponsors and full exhibition areas. More than 70 scientists and experts and the CEOs of worldwide international companies have participated in "Global Leaders Panel" and shared their opinions on the status and future of feed and food production i the world; which had been an important inspiration for the representatives of sector. The positive value of this important event for us was the opportunity that our companies involved in food sector to meet with international companies and increase their possibilities of cooperation. Which issues were covered at the Congress? How was the participation and general interest? What did this Congress bring into the feed industry or what will it bring in the future? 5th GFFC has covered the subjects such as sustainability in food and feed supply chain, global markets and trade, feed legislation and standards, possibilities of facilitation in feed trade, animal feeding, innovation and R&D. Congress did not only cover the feed sector in Turkey, but also issues such as supply and trade of raw material for feed in the world, sustainability and feed and food safety; which tried to enlighten the future of sector. Also, the Congress has examined the problems and threats in relation with nutrition and protein supply in 2050 and suggestions for solution were discussed. When we consider the Congress as a whole, in compliance with the theme "Equality for Everyone, Wealth for Everyone"; the importance of sustainability of animal production and importance of innovation in terms of food safety, funding amounts for R&D, and the importance of supporting the small and medium sized enterprises and family businesses in developing countries were emphasized. Finally, do you have anything else to add about the current projects or future plans of your Union? The goal of Türkiyembir is to give more importance to the international dimension of bi-annual TUYEM Congress and to carry the feed sector into a position which can export products with high added value and a competitive sector. In order to achieve this, the developments in feed and food sector will be more closely followed by increasing the international relations.