Miller Magazine Issue: 120 December 2019

52 MILLER / DECEMBER 2019 Turkey’s export sector has long been experi- encing a golden age. But it also struggles with many problems. There are two fundamental problems of our sector. The first is the idle ca- pacity problem and the second is the lack of sufficient, high quality and cheap raw materials. Unless there is a solution to these two major problems, it is clear that the difficulties faced by our sector will continue. According to the 2018 Cereal Sector Report published by the Turkish Grain Board, the num- ber of active flour mills in Turkey is 659. The actual capacity utilization rate of these 659 fac- tories is 52 percent compared to the installed capacity. In other words, half of the capacity is idle excluding the non-active factories.¹ Every inactive production facility and any idle capacity show that our national wealth is idle. In order not to waste any more of the national capital, wheat flour production should be urgently subject to a license. Opening new facilities should be pre- vented through legal regulation. Another problem that awaits us in idle capac- ity is the risk of contraction in the export mar- ket. Turkey alone carries nearly one-third of the world’s flour exports in the last 6 years. But var- ious risks await Turkey in the medium and long term. “One of the biggest problems in Turkish milling industry is the difficulty of accessing quality, cheap, and sufficient raw material. It is necessary to increase measures for domestic wheat to carry out the export with our own wheat and for the domestic market. It is necessary to take steps to move to industrial agriculture without becoming a country dependent on foreign trade in wheat and necessary works should be increased in order for the farmer to return to wheat production.” Measures should be increased to export with domestic wheat Hasan Ozmermer Board Member of Ozmermer Flour