Business with Turkey

Historically, the agriculture sector has been Turkey's largest employer and a major contributor to the country's GDP, exports and industrial growth. However, as the country has developed, agriculture has declined in importance relative to the rapidly growing industry and services sectors.

Although the share of agriculture in the Turkish economy has tended to fall over a period of several decades due to the increase in industrial and services sectors, it still accounts for a relatively larger share of total output and employment than in many other countries. Agriculture's share of GDP declined from 35 percent in 1970 to 22 percent in 1980 and to 14 percent in 2000.

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Turkey has a vast agricultural resource base with significant potential to expand output, particularly through increased crop yields. In the past, the government has intervened heavily its agricultural sector through price supports, input subsidies, import protection, marketing monopolies and export subsidies and taxes. To increase food self-sufficiency and rural development, stabilize farmers' incomes, provide adequate nutrition and affordable food and promote exports have been adopted among government objectives.

Since implementing its first structural adjustment program in 1980, Turkey has developed ongoing series of agricultural policy reforms designed to privatize markets, to reduce agricultural subsidies, to remove trade barriers and to integrate Turkey into the global economy. Measures adopted under the program included currency devaluation, price and trade liberalization and the opening of financial markets.

During this period a number of changes occurred. Cultivated land area rose by an estimated 2.4 million hectar, approximately 14.5 percent. The most intense change occurred in 1982, when fallow area dropped by 1.6 million hectar compared to previous year, as a result of large input imports, particularly seed and fertiliser. In addition, a strong push in the production and export of pulses tripled the area devoted to those crops. While overall yields have risen, there were regional differences in fertility. Field crop yields are usually two to three times higher in the milder coastal areas (Aegean and Mediterranean regions) than in the colder and generally drier areas of central and eastern Turkey.

Trends in Agricultural Production (1000 Tons)

Despite the overall trade deficit of Turkey, the agriculture trade balance is significantly positive, providing some relief to external accounts. Trade liberalization and rising demand in the region resulted in agricultural product exports (excluding agroindustry) rising to a value of $ 1.96 billion in 2000 and accounted for 7.2 percent of Turkey's total export earnings.

A long-standing goal of the Turkish Government and one of the main component of the five-year development plan is to provide an adequate and balanced diet for a growing population and, in particular, to increase per capita consumption of animal proteins. As economic development increases dietary diversity, the country's caloric intake is approaching European levels.

Over the last three decades, Turkey's population has been migrating not only to urban areas but also to other countries. In 1950, the rural population represented 75 percent of the total; four decades later, it has dropped to 40 percent. In the 1980s, urbanization grew at an annual rate of 6 percent. Rural-urban migration is largely an inevitable consequence of industrialization.
Resources and Environment

There are economic disparities between rural and urban areas. However, the government is strengthening infrastructure, communications, and the agriculture resource base and expanding employment opportunities by upgrading local enterprises and attracting new industries. The focus of the policy is the development of the Southern Anatolian Project (GAP).

Irrigation is a means of reducing weather-induced production variations. Therefore, Turkey is giving high priority to improving land and water resources and expanding irrigation. It has designated about two-thirds of total public agricultural investment for land and water improvement.

Environmental degradation and resource conservation are of increasing concern to the Turkish agricultural sector. Intensifying production, especially by using chemical fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation, puts further emphasis on the environment.
Regional Agricultural Output Pattern of Turkey

Regions

Principal Products

Central-North

Cereals, rice, vegetables, pulses, fruits

Aegean

Olives, grapes, cotton, tobacco, pulses, vegetables, tubers

Marmara

Sunflower, rice, roots, sugarbeets

Mediterranean

Cotton, cereals, citrus, rice, vegetables, pulses

North-East

Fodder, wheat, tubers, pulses, livestock

South-East

Fodder, cereals, tubers, vegetables, pulses, grapes, livestock, pistachio, fruits

Black Sea

Hazelnuts, tea, rice, tobacco

Central-East

Fodder, cereals, fruits, tobacco, sugarbeets

Central-South

Cereals, sugarbeets, grapes, pulses, vegetables, tubers, livestock