TEPAV |FAPRI Director Güven said that the Institute was making projections for wheat, barley, and corn to develop an economic model.

ANKARA – The TEPAV Food and Agricultural Policies Research Institute (TEPAV | FAPRI), operating under the auspices of TEPAV, held its first advisory platform meeting on Wednesday, 12 June 2013. The Platform members consisting of cooperative and union representatives, prominent industrialists of the food and agriculture sector, public officials and academics conveyed opinions about the activities of the Institute.

The opening addresses of the meeting carried out at TEPAV were delivered by TEPAV | FAPRI Director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Güven and Head of the Institute Advisory Board Prof. Dr. Necdet Budak.

Budak said that according to the latest reports of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization on the OECD countries the tendency towards consuming healthy food and food prices increased as the income of middle-income groups in developing countries increased. He added that these findings reinforced the need for institutes like TEPAV | FAPRI. Emphasizing that while world population had grown, agricultural land remained constant and production quality had decreased, he stated that it was necessary to analyze what types of policies this outlook implied for Turkey for the next decade. He added, “From this perspective, it is critical for us to present to policy makers alternative policies that are independent of politics and driven by scientific research.”

Assessing the current state of the sector in Turkey, Sibel Güven made the following remarks:

• “Compared to high-income countries, agricultural product prices are high and profitability is low in Turkey;
• This pleases neither the producers nor the consumers;
• Agricultural prices are expected to become more volatile in conjunction with financialization;
• In the long-term, agricultural product prices in Turkey might follow global price movements;
• Licensed warehousing and certified products that are required for financialization will contribute to the advancement of the sector;
• Although agricultural subsidies are on the rise, they are not as efficient as desired.”

Aim to develop a database agreed on by stakeholders...

Stressing that the big picture had to be considered in policy design, Güven said that TEPAV | FAPRI had started making projections for wheat, barley, and corn in order to develop an economic model. Stating that the key problem with this respect was accessing reliable data and that the data provided by sector representatives and official data diverged to a large extent, she said, “Many statistics available for other countries are not collected in Turkey. An inventory of the available data and studies must be done.” She added that they had called the Advisory Platform for contributing to the creation of a database agreed on by all stakeholders via debating the findings. The second meeting of the Platform, where the initial results of the economic model would be discussed, was planned to be carried out in late September or October. The Advisory Committee, the other pillar of the Institute, which is composed of senior public officials, academics, relevant TOBB industry councils and representatives from the of Turkish Exporters’ Assembly and TEPAV will convene before this date.

The meeting ended after opinions and suggestions of Platform members on the activities of the Institute were received.