Miller Magazine Issue: 155 November 2022

The world has been going through a challenging period in the last few years. While the consequences of the global contractions that started with the Covid-19 pandemic continue, the war between the two grain giants, Russia and Ukraine, increased geopolitical risks for the food and grain industry. These risks were discussed at two major conferences, of which Miller Maga- zine was a media partner. The first of these “Sectoral Outlook and Expectations After the 2022 Harvest Season” meeting in Konya, organized by the Associa- tion of Central Anatolian Flour Industrialists and supported by the Turkish Grain Board (TMO) and the Turkish Flour Industrialists’ Federation (TFIF). In his speech at the conference, TMO General Manager Ahmet Güldal stated that after a very successful harvest season, they created a large wheat stock especially in the domestic market and they took measures to make the sector comfortable in the coming period. Ahmet Güldal’s statement that the wheat pur- chase price, which is above the world prices, and the premium support they put into practice this year will continue in the coming years was interpreted as the farmers will come back to wheat production. At the meeting, I came together with Haluk Tezcan, Chairman of TFIF and talked about the problems of the sector and listened to his solution offers. Tez- can said that the premium support and high purchase prices for wheat this year will increase the wheat cultivation areas by 30 percent and that this would be a big step towards exporting flour with domestic production. “Türkiye must have enough wheat. For this, it is necessary to attract the farmer to wheat. We, as flour industrialists, have been holding the world flour export leadership for years. However, we are achieving this under the Inward Processing Regime. My dream for Türkiye is to head up flour export with its domestic wheat. I believe we can achieve this together with our farmers,” he said. The second conference theMiller Magazine teamattendedwas Grain Trading Conference in Baku, hosted by the Russian Grain Union (RGU). In an interview with Miller Magazine on the sidelines of the conference, Arkady Zlochevsky, the president of the RGU, said that the increase in freight and insurance rates due to the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia has created obstacles in the export of Russian grain to world markets. Russia exported wheat to more than 40 countries in August 2021. However, this number decreased to 10 in June 2022. And half of the Russian wheat was shipped to only 4 countries in September. Zlochevsky underlined that alternative and competitive routes are needed for grain export. In this respect, he pointed out that the North-South corridor should be used more effectively with the cooperation of Russia, Azer- baijan, Kazakhstan and Iran. Commenting on the Blacksea grain deal, Zlochevsky said that the implemen- tation of the grain corridor agreement is a harmful element for them. “The exten- sion of the agreement may cost Türkiye’s flour export leadership in the world,” he also stated. Why does he think so? You can find out the answer from the interview on the following pages. editor Namık Kemal PARLAK Russian and Turkish perspectives on wheat millermagazine company/millermagazine millermagazine Parantez Publishing and Congress Ltd. Gökevler Mah. 2312 Sok. No:16/37 Ginza Corner Plaza, Esenyurt / İstanbul - TURKEY T. +90 212 347 31 64 F. +90 212 212 02 04 www.millermagazine.com info@millermagazine.com On Behalf of Parantez Publishing and Congress Ltd., Owner Zübeyde Kavraz Responsible Manager Namık Kemal Parlak Editor-in-Chief Namık Kemal Parlak Editors Mustafa Yağmurlu Cemalettin Kanaş Sales and Marketing Burcu Çetin Hayriye Turan İknur Durmaz Art Director and Visual Design Ercan Yavuz Özer Duman Corporate Communications Ahmet Hamdi Annaç Consultancy Board Ali İhsan Özkaşıkçı, Chairman of AUSD Mesut Çakmak, Chairman of GUSAD Erhan Özmen, GUSAD Honorary Chairman Bekir Bağış, Chairman of Çukurova Flour Industrialists Association Hasan Özmermer, Board Member of Özmermer Flour Derviş Toprak Mehmet Şerif Gültay Referee and Scientific Advisory Board Prof. Dr. Mustafa Bayram Prof. Gustavo Sosa Prof. Dr. Hazım Özkaya Prof. Dr. Harun Dıraman Asst. Prof. M. Kürşat Demir Asst. Prof. Halef Dizlek Asst. Prof. Mustafa Erbaş Publication Type Periodic (Monthly) Printing - Baskı İhlas Matbaacılık All copyrights belong to Parantez Publishing. © May not be used without permission. Responsibility of the ads belongs to the advertisers. ISSN 2718-031X COPYRIGHT PAGE