Two important products in agricultural trade
The final report of the meeting, which brought together nearly 60 academicians and representatives of public institutions and organizations from İzmir, Şanlıurfa, Mersin, Ankara, Eskişehir and Denizli about the current situation in local and foreign markets and the sectoral development of cumin and anise that are among the significant products in our country's agricultural trade, has been published.
In the meeting, which started with the opening speech of Dr. Tayfur Akın, board member of İzmir Commodity Exchange (ICE), the development of cumin and anise varieties and production methods that are more suitable to the conditions in Turkey through R&D studies, training the producers, conducting market researches and the prospective contributions of all these studies to the Turkish economy were discussed in detail in order to compete effectively with the competing countries in the trade of these two products.
Some of the important topics mentioned in the meeting are as follows:
• Despite a sharp decline in our cumin production from 50 to 18-19 thousand tonnes and in anise production from 28 to 8 thousand tonnes throughout the years, the trade of medicinal and aromatic plants grows incrementally in the world with each day passing. Considering this situation, a new planning should be made.
• The studies carried out by India, the most important actor in this field in the world, should be carefully examined and the appropriate ones should be applied in our country.
• In order for our country to have a voice in the trade of cumin and anise in the world, it is important that our varieties with high yield and disease-resistance are registered. Necessary improvement studies should be carried out as soon as possible in order to achieve this.
• Urgent precautions should be taken to solve the problems such as fusarium and alternaria that negatively affect the sector at the production level.
• A more effective fight should be taken to prevent pesticide residues.
• It is also necessary to develop tall varieties suitable for machine harvest while improving yield.
• In addition to improvement studies to be conducted for efficient and high-quality production in cumin and anise, adaptation studies should also be carried out with material procurement from abroad.
Having made an overall evaluation of the problems discussed and solution proposals put forward with the sector stakeholders during the meeting, Mr. Dr. Tayfur Akın noted that our country had a significant exports potential in cumin and anise, and listed the things that should be done for our country to achieve a higher export revenue in these products:
• As Turkey, we need to have our own varieties in both products. For this purpose, it is very important to develop varieties that are suitable for the world markets and the production conditions of our country by conducting both adaptation and improvement studies at the same time.
• In addition to the conventional production, organic production should also be focused on.
• Licensed pesticides should be available for these products. If this cannot be achieved, it would be useful to prepare recommendation lists. It will thus be possible to prevent pesticide residues that exceed the limits.
• Conducting studies to come up with solutions to the PA and TA alkaloids caused by weeds and training our farmers on this issue must be among the priority actions.
Having mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in particular and all other institutions and organizations related to the sector should conduct studies regarding especially these four main points, Mr. Akın noted they would be happy to support these studies as İzmir Commodity Exchange.
01.02.2019
