ORHAN ÖZÇATALBAŞ: NO FOOD SHORTAGE, TURKEY IS A SELF-SUFFICIENT COUNTRY
Claims that the novel coronavirus pandemic will cause a food shortage in Turkey are not rational because the country has no issues with agricultural production, especially of cereals, says an agriculture expert. Turkey, which produces around 20 million tons of wheat annually, is a self-sufficient country, Professor Orhan Özçatalbaş told Anadolu Agency. "Expectations of famine in the next 3-4 years for a country which has planted wheat on seven million hectares of land before the coronavirus epidemic is unrealistic unless there are unusual climatic factors," he said. Touching on Russia's suspension of wheat exports as a protectionist measure due to the coronavirus, he said Turkey imports wheat from Russia for manufacturing and exporting industrial products such as biscuits, flour, pasta and semolina and not for domestic consumption, including bread. He said the country imported 60 million tons of wheat in the last two decades and exported products equivalent to 7...