Believing that one of the most important pillars of sustainability for a green and livable world is to increase organic production and exports, the Turkish organic sector presented Turkish organic foods to the world at the BioFach Organic Products Fair, the biggest meeting of the world organic sector.
Stating that we have an annual production of 1,6 million tons of organic food, Aegean Exporters' Associations Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi said that they aim to get a 121 percent share from the organic sector, which has reached a volume of 1 billion Euros worldwide. He stated that for this purpose, they have organized the National Participation Organization of Turkey for a quarter of a century for the BioFach Fair held in Istanbul.
World Famous Turkish Chef İbrahim Önen at the Turkey Brand stand, with Turkish organic products; Eskinazi emphasized that by preparing delicious meals that blend traditional Turkish cuisine and Western cuisine for organic lovers, appealing to both the eyes and the stomach of the visitors, Eskinazi said, “We gave the Europeans a feast of taste. With our national participation organization, a total of 16 Turkish companies, 26 of which are individual and 42 individually, participated in the BioFach Fair. Turkish companies intensively; exhibited dried fruit, cereals and pulses, frozen food, nuts and fruit juice products. The fair brought together 95 companies from 2 countries and 765 thousand visitors from 135 countries.”
We aim to be among the 3 countries from which the European Union imports the most.
Sharing the knowledge that 49 thousand farmers produce 352 species and 267 million tons of organic products in 1,6 thousand hectares of land in Turkey, EIB Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi said, “The areas allocated for organic production in Turkey are above the world average with 1,7 percent. We rank 3rd in the EU and 12th in the world in the number of organic producers. Aegean Region is the leader in organic production and export. 75 percent of Turkey's organic product exports are carried out from the Aegean Region. We are in the 3th rank among the countries that import the most organic products from the European Union, which imports nearly 7 million tons of organic products annually.
Işık: “We complied with the EU Green Deal 35 years ago”
With the European Green Agreement, which the European Union brought to the agenda of the world in 2019; Expressing that he laid the foundations for a greener and more livable world against the climate crisis, Aegean Exporters' Association Organic Products and Sustainability Coordinator and Aegean Dried Fruits and Products Exporters' Association President Mehmet Ali Işık pointed out that the Turkish organic sector is a sector that has adapted to the European Green Agreement targets.
As the organic sector, we aim to export 1 billion dollars
Determining that “Turkey has an experience of about 35 years in the organic sector”, Chairman Işık said, “With these experiences, we should set an example for our other sectors to fight the climate crisis and we will have a strong place in BioFach Fair and similar organizations in order to reach Turkey's carbon neutral targets by 2050. we need to get. We have to establish and implement a humane ecosystem in all our sectors in order to maintain our position in our biggest export market, the EU, to be able to produce sustainable and environmentally friendly, and to put a stop to the global climate crisis. As Aegean Exporters' Associations, taking steps regarding sustainability is among the priority items of our strategic plan. German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir clearly conveyed to the world public that Germany and the European Union decided to increase organic production by 30 percent after the pandemic. Our priority will be to protect our lands and ensure sustainability in healthy food production. It is imperative that we protect our soils to increase organic production. We will focus on this topic with our UR-GE and R&D projects. Universities, Institutes, manufacturers will be our stakeholders in this regard. We believe that we will increase our organic product exports, which is currently at the level of 500 million dollars, to 1 billion dollars in this way.”
More than 100 events were held at the BioFach Fair
While about 100 workshops, symposiums and negotiations were held in the presence of experts on organic products at BioFach Fair, there was an intense participation in the “BioFach Congress” Program carried out by IFOAM (International Federation of Agricultural Movements), which is the patron of BioFach. The fair was held in February, its own date, after a 2-year hiatus after the pandemic. Although the first fair after the pandemic lags behind the pre-pandemic period numbers in terms of the number of visitors and participants, the participants evaluated it as a fair where they were quite satisfied with the number of participants and visitors when evaluated within the post-pandemic normalization process. Especially the visitor profile made Turkish companies happy.
Ünal Atçalıoğlu, Deputy Consul of the Consulate General in Nuremberg, and Ali Bayraktar, the Commercial Attaché in Munich, visited the BioFach Fair and shared their experiences with Turkish companies about the European and organic market by visiting the stands of Turkish companies.
With the Turkish National Participation Organization to BioFach Fair; Arnada Gıda Tic San. A.Ş., Biyo-Sam Organic Agriculture Transportation Food Import Export Industry and Trade Ltd. Sti., Deniz Foods Foreign Trade and Food Industry. Ltd. Şti., Ertürk Grape and Agriculture Products Inc., Göknur Gıda Maddeleri Energy Manufacturing Imp. Ihr. Trade and San. A.Ş., Işık Tarım Ürünleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., Kırlıoğlu Tarımsal Ürünleri Gıda İnş. Singing. Trade A.Ş., Mapeks Gıda ve Sanayi Mamulleri İhr. ve Tic. A.Ş., Nimeks Organic Tarım Ürünleri San. ve Tic. Ltd. Sti., Osman Akça Tarım Ürünleri İth. Ihr. Singing. ve Tic. A.Ş., Özgür Tarım Ürünleri San ve Tic A.Ş., Pagmat Pamuk Tekstil Gıda San. ve Tic. A.Ş., Saneks Kuru Fig İşl ve Tic A.Ş., Seyrani Agro Gıda San. External. Trade Ltd. Şti, Tunay Gıda Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., and Yavuz İncir Gıda Tarım Ticaret Limited Şirketi.