PAKDEMİRLİ: RAISIN PRODUCTION WILL BE OVER 300 THOUSAND TONNES

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said that throughout 2019, 4.2 million tons of fresh grapes and 300 thousand tonnes of seedless grape harvest is expected, if it falls below 10 liras of seedless grapes stock exchange price, they will make intervention purchases by Turkish Grain Board (TMO).

Stating that Manisa exceeds 1.2 million tonnes of the total grape production and provides 85 percent of Turkish raisin production along with the 20 percent of table grape production, Pakdemirli explained during his ministry despite increasing costs, they have declared such prices that farmers would be satisfied.

Without putting the state under load, following the markets well, Pakdemirli noted that they tried to increase the earnings of the farmers and said:

"Everyone in the chain from seed to fork will get their right. But we need to re-plan and programme the value chain here. Especially we need to make the fresh fruit and vegetable business the producer will gain the most. We had some problems in winter about the vegetables. Price of the crop 3 liras in the field but 12 liras in the house, something that should not be actually. The most labour-intensive sector gets the least added value. Law of wholesale market hall  and retail law are being worked on again.This issue is under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce but we also need to re-plan the chain from seed to fork with our contributions. We will be referring these legislative changes to parliament in the coming months."

Minister Pakdemirli added that the producer's price of raisin in 2017 was 4-5 liras, between 8-12 liras due to the low yield in 2018 and the total exports of dried and fresh products in 2018 reached 611 million dollars.

Pakdemirli also announced that raisin production is expected to be over 300 thousand tonnes in new season...