Miller Magazine Issue 109 / January 2019

68 INTERVIEW MILLER / JANUARY 2019 and long term. As a country, we export based on im- port. However, the domestic market and export support each other. We grind twelve million tons of wheat for the domestic market and five million tons of wheat for export. You cannot really distinguish these. Of course, we meet the need of our country. After all, all precauti- ons were taken in this regard. However, Turkey exports to 115 countries and these countries have different ne- eds. Also, although we produce, there are the type of wheats that do not go well with Turkish bread structure. On the ground that we import firstly and keep the ba- lance of wheat in the country, it is very important for export and our country to exchange products that we do not need with products that we need. I readily belie- ve that we will overcome these problems and proceed on our way. What can be done to bring the idle capacity of mill factories back into the national economy? I wish I have something to say on this. The installed capacity is around forty million tons. We grind about se- venteen million tons. Twelve million tons of this is for the domestic market, and five million tons of this is for the export. The world’s export market is around ten and twelve million tons. We cover 30-35 percent of this. That means even if we cover the whole world market, we still have idle capacity. What we can do as the sector is to increase productivity. What steps should be taken in order to avoid a pos- sible shortage of wheat and flour in Turkey? If the Turkish market goes below the world’s prices, that situation will bring a serious production problem in the coming days. Two most important problems that Turkish farmers face with are scale and input costs. If we compare the scale, Turkey cultivates wheat in a vase. The small size of farmers also requires them to generate higher income in a unit area. To avoid falling short of self-sufficiency in production, we should make it possible that our farmers gain more than the world’s price. This can be done in two different ways: You can set up the market higher than the world’s prices or you can estab- lish the market lower than the world’s prices and can cover the difference with premium system. This is the issue that the public authority can decide. If we do not do this, in time, we can become a country that does not only import wheat for export but also for our needs. This is a very, very important issue that we are all responsible for. Can you tell us about Halim Kırtız Food Industry’s targets for 2019? I wish to congratulate the new year of our shareholders and colleagues. I hope that 2019 brings peace, health, happiness, and abundance for all of us. Unfortunately, 2018 was not a very good year for our sector and our country. Of course, our company was affected by this si- tuation. In 2019, we aim to provide better service to our customers with new products that we included thanks to our renovated factory. Do you wish to add anything else? Turkey is an extremely dynamic and powerful country. We are whole with public authority and the private sec- tor. We should be aware of our strength and spend our energy in finding common solutions by understanding each other instead of wasting our resources and energy. In the end, our country wins. My love and respect to all friends, colleagues, and se- ctor stakeholders…