BERTAN BALÇIK: WE SHOULD EXCEED 1 MILLION TONS IN COTTON PRODUCTION

Record expectations for cotton production...

National Cotton Council Chairman Bertan Balçık, on his press release, "This season cotton will go down in history, I hope this year will have a record in Turkey on condition that good weather conditions in the production. Our biggest goal is to exceed 1 million tons. In all of the cotton acreage steadily in a development," he said .

Balçık, said in his statement, "white gold" as described in the October season of cotton, in 2017, 502 thousand hectares of cotton plantation areas in 2018 rose to 525 thousand hectares, he added.

The production amount is 882 thousand tons in 2017 and in 2018 it is about 930 thousand tons. Balçık also explained, "There is a steady development in all regions of the cotton cultivation area. This has accelerated slightly in the Aegean Region and Adana last year. We expect more capacity with the areas to be opened."

The target in cotton is to exceed 1 million tons, Balçık voicing they would perform this year, "Our main mission is to get closer to the amount of consumption used by the textile sector in Turkey 1 million 600 thousand tons and reduce dependence on foreign sources. In case this season goes well regarding the weather conditions in cotton production in Turkey. Hopefully we will have a record in history."

Bertan Balçık also noted that cotton is not difficult to exceed the 1 million tons target. "Furthermore considering our farmer's experience, the incentives provided by the government, technology investments and improvement in seed sector that provides great advantages in this development of the industry. Besides Turkey still attains the second rank after Australia in efficiency."

"INCENTIVES MUST BE BASED ON LONG TERM PLANS"

"Dependence on imported inputs still continue and this also affects producers negatively. There are problems, but these are not solved things. We need to think in the longer-term. We have the infrastructure to achieve this. In the meantime both the Ministry of Agriculture, commodity exchanges and chambers of agriculture should come together in order to maintain the coordination. We need to continue production with more rational solutions. The incentives should be based on long-term plans and should be aimed at increasing the quality of production" he lastly evaluated...