Miller Magazine Issue: 155 November 2022

85 INTERVIEW MILLER / NOVEMBER 2022 there, but also in different countries of the world. Many Afri- can markets where we sell products now impose additional customs duties. Thus, conditions are getting harder for the Turkish flour industry. For this, we have a significant role to play. We are making an effort not to lose these markets, which we have gained under challenging conditions. Our country has great experience in human resources. Taking the wheat and producing flour from it is thought to be easy. However, we know from experience that it is not that easy. Countries that are expected to compete with us do not have the opportunity to be as successful. Iraq has tried this many times in the past. They tried Iran as an alternative to Türkiye. Türkiye tried to bring flour from different countries as well. But they couldn’t give up on our flour thanks to the value given to that product by the Turkish flour industrialists. When they don’t buy from us, they buy lower-quality prod- ucts at higher prices. We have a serious fund of knowledge. If also the government supports us, we won’t lose our markets and maintain our leadership in the markets we are strong. We have to work on each country one by one. We have made promotions in many countries with the Flour Promotion Group in the past. We managed to open big markets, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia. The Turkish flour industry won the cases before the World Trade Organization and set an example for many new indus- tries. We are an industry that has brought billions of dollars to the country through export so far. In this sense, I believe that we, as flour industrialists, will maintain our large share of the export cake if we are given the opportunity and supported. What will TFIF do to increase the farmer’s wheat production, including contract production? As TFIF, we invited the managers of TAGEM (General Direc- torate of Agricultural Research and Policies) to the “Sectoral Outlook and Expectations after the 2022 Harvest Season” meeting, which was held under the roof of the Extended Sec- tor Meeting of the Central Anatolian Flour Industrialists’ As- sociation in Konya where the problems of the industry were discussed. Here, we drew attention to our country’s wheat production and varieties, mentioned the needs, advantages, and disadvantages of our producers for high-quality and effi- cient wheat production, and introduced the wheat they need to our industrialists. One of the main problems of Türkiye is seed diversity. In other words, we have so much seed inflation… We do not know who is planting which seed. Different seeds are being developed every year. For my company, I work with the Ae- gean Agricultural Research Institute, the largest gene bank in Türkiye. We have been coming together with farmers, in- dustrialists, and consumer associations for 25 years. We man- aged to develop two varieties. Unfortunately, none of them are accepted by the farmer. We are committed to giving the farmer 15 percent more than the price announced by TMO for these seeds. But unfortunately, we have difficulty encoun- tering an organized structure among the farmers. If the con- tract farming system is to be established, all parties should discuss and agree on this issue and this should be supported by the law. There has to be a structure. I, as TFIF’s president, would be more than happy if I was successful in developing high-yielding wheat varieties and bringing them to the sector. Recently, we witness that flour industrialists have increased their investments in bakery products. For example, the latest investments declared by Doruk Un and Söke Un are remarkable. How do you evaluate the flour industrialist’s investments in bakery products? Do you think these investments are related to a danger of shrinkage in world flour exports? On the contrary, I regard it as a success of than a danger for the Turkish milling industry rather than a danger. It shows the diversity of the Turkish milling industry. A success story of the industry. The industry analyzes the world well. It diversifies Türkiye in line with the demands of the people of the world. We used to export wheat in the past. Now, we have become a flour-exporting country. Today, we are taking a similar op- portunity in the feed industry as well. Therefore, I evaluate it as a development in our favor that Turkish flour industrialist produces bakery products in an attempt to export more val- ue-added products. Could we also get your thoughts on the education of the milling industry? University-industry cooperation is very valuable for our sector, as it is for every sector. We need professors who can present us with contemporary perspectives from both the soil, industry and consumption aspects and hand them down to future generations. Both parties have a lot of responsibilities in developing our cooperation. In this context, I think that all of us should give more value to vocational schools of the milling industry including universities and high schools. Do you have anything to add? Such organizations are of great importance for the sector stakeholders and the public to come together, express the problems of the sector, offer solutions, and exchange views. With this understanding, we will hold our TFIF 17th Interna- tional Congress and Exhibition, which we organize every year, this time in Antalya on February 9-12, 2023 with the theme of ‘Technological Transformations in Production and Global Risks’. I invite all the stakeholders of the industry to this great meeting where problems will be evaluated and solutions will be presented together with industry leaders.