M. Ülkü Karakuş, President of Turkey’s Feed Manufacturers Association (TÜRKİYEM-BİR), delivered groundbreaking remarks on the sector’s raw material strategy at the VII. Fish Feeding and Feed Technologies Workshop organized by Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMÜ). Karakuş emphasized that Turkey’s 95% dependence on imported soy should not be treated as a “complex,” noting that, due to geographical constraints, imports are an inevitable production reality.
To meet Turkey’s annual feed production capacity of 30 million tons, Karakuş said the country imports around 15 million tons of raw materials, stressing that the domestic soy production projections must be discussed on realistic grounds. Recalling past field efforts to boost soy cultivation across Turkey, particularly in the GAP region, he said: “Even if we push for soy everywhere and pay top prices, we cannot raise our self-sufficiency above 20%. This is not surrender; it is a limitation imposed by geography and climate.”
M. Ülkü Karakuş, President of Turkey’s Feed Manufacturers Association (TÜRKİYEM-BİR)
Karakuş also highlighted that soy cultivation competes for land with other crops such as corn, sunflower, and cotton, creating an economic necessity to choose between them. He described imported soy as a form of “production import,” adding: “We bring in this raw material and convert it into value-added fish, poultry, and dairy products for export. In today’s Turkey, we should stop seeing these imports as a weakness and focus on managing the process through rational policies.” He further stressed the vital importance of placing water at the center of planned production amid the global warming and climate crisis.
Karakuş noted that TÜRKİYEM-BİR, founded in 1974, represents three-quarters of feed production in Turkey. He underlined that the sector has gained strong momentum in recent years with fish feed production exceeding 800,000 tons, and stressed that the fisheries sector’s leading role in animal production exports depends on rational approaches to raw material supply.