Wheat from Russia Sugar from Egypt

Despite the constant fall in world food prices, food inflation in Turkey is suffering. The policy of regulating the market with imports, applied to all basic foods, also disrupted the foreign trade balance of the sector. Turkey, once self-sufficient in agriculture, now has to import even straw, as well as olive oil, rice, cotton, dry beans, red lentils.

In the first 6 months of this year, exports from the agriculture, food and beverage sector increased 1.04 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 12.230 million dollars, while imports registered an increase of 19 .71 percent and reached 12.46. billion dollars. The sector, which for a long time had a foreign trade surplus with these figures, had a foreign trade deficit of 230 million dollars in the first 6 months of the year. The sector’s foreign trade balance had a surplus of 1.7 billion dollars in the first half of last year. The sector, which had a foreign trade balance of 390 million dollars in May, had a foreign trade deficit for two consecutive months. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, food prices decreased by 11.8% in July, while food prices in Turkey increased by 61% annually.

Türkiye AT THE TOP

While food supply is considered a national security issue for all countries due to the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the closed Grain Corridor Agreement also gives dangerous signs for the future, especially in staples like wheat and sunflower oil. Given this scenario, while Turkey’s imports increased month by month, Russia and Ukraine emerged as the countries that import the most in the food industry.

According to the semi-annual foreign trade bulletin of the Federation of Food and Beverage Industry Associations of Turkey, the most imported product in the first month of 2023 was wheat with 2,303 million dollars. After wheat, soybeans with 1,830 million dollars and crude sunflower oil with 917 million dollars were the most imported products. In the first 6 months of the year, 140.2 million dollars of sugar were imported, mainly from Brazil and Egypt.

Black Sea Wheat Corridor

On the other hand, wheat, which has become a strategic product, stands out for its high import figures and dependence on Russia and Ukraine. According to the data, wheat, which ranked first with $2.303 billion in the first 6 months of this year, was mostly imported from Russia and Ukraine. During this period, 1.654 million dollars of wheat were imported from Russia and 607.8 million dollars from Ukraine, while the share of these two countries in total wheat imports was approximately 92 percent.

We depend on Russia and Ukraine for imports.

Most of the imports of 3 products, which are among the top 3 in Turkey’s imports, continued to come from Russia and Ukraine. By country, imports were made from Russia with a maximum of 3 thousand 338 million dollars. This country was followed by Ukraine with 2 thousand 79 million dollars, and in third place imported 961 million dollars from Brazil. While US$542 million was imported from the US and US$527 million from Malaysia, imports from these 5 countries constituted 59.7 percent of total imports. Russia and Ukraine maintained their places in the ranking of the top 2 countries from which Turkey imports the most. Imports from these 2 countries corresponded to 43.4 percent of total imports.