TURKISH AGRI.NEWS

Turkey 's red meat production reached 1.2 million tons in 2019, the Turkish Statistical Institute ( TÜİK ) announced on Feb. 11. The country's output increased by 7.4 percent in 2019, from 1.12 million tons the previous year, TÜİK said. Production consisted of 1.07 million tons of cattle, 109,382 tons of sheep, 16,536 tons of goat and 73 tons of buffalo meat, according to the official report. Turkey produced 291,565 tons of red meat in the last quarter of 2019, up 9.5 percent versus the same quarter in 2018, it showed. Another TÜİK report released last week indicated that Turkey's animal production increased by 4.7 percent to reach 66.6 million -- mostly bovine and ovine animals. The country also produced 348.8 million poultry animals -- chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese -- last year.

Turkey 's total number of farm animals reached over 68 million as of June this year, the country's statistical authority reported on Sept. 12. Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) said the figure recorded a 5.15 percent rise on a yearly basis. The number of bovine animals -- including cattle and buffalo -- amounted to 18.2 million heads while the number of ovine animals -- goats and sheep -- totaled some 49.8 million. "The number of sheep came at 38.4 million heads," the institute said. "The total number of goats came at 11.3 million heads." Official data also showed that there were around 270,000 donkeys, horses, mules, camels, and pigs in Turkey as of June this year.