In the past few days, the issue on narrowing of cotton cultivation areas in Turkey which pays about 15 billion dollar for imported cotton came to the fore. Turkey which falls short of cotton which is the necessity of the industrialist although it is a textile country, ranks number two in the world after China however it is the second one at cotton fiber rendement in the world.
Upon the criticisms about the decrease of the cotton areas after the farmers directed to the other products in spite of the rapid increase of cotton need of Turkey, The President of The Union of Turkish Agricultural Chamber (TZOB), Şemsi Bayraktar, by reporting that the harvest has been maintaining at cotton, said ‘’According to the information we received from our chambers of agriculture, rendement is at expected level and any trouble is seen on production’’. In his explanation, Bayraktar stated that the premium needs to be raised to 1 lira which was raised to 65 kurus from 55 kurus to increase the production at cotton whose consumption cannot be met and it needs to be paid on February- March and input costs need to be reduced.
Rendement increased at cotton
Bayraktar who emphasized that cotton harvest has maintained and the production is expected at about 2 million 350 thousand tons just like last year, also said ‘’ Change at the production is connected with cultivation area and rendement and cultivation areas is connected with the income of the manufacturer, products costs, price and supports. There isn’t rendement problem in Turkey. Our productivity is high at cotton and our costs as well. Due to the high costs, the gain of the manufacturer isn’t enough. Prices are low and more support must be provided. Certain reasons of the decrease of the cultivation areas are mainly structural problems of our agriculture and increasing of the manufacture costs with high income prices. As it is known, cotton is the sole agricultural product which we cannot make tariff application due to the customs unions. Cotton is imported with zero customs. We cannot protect with customs. We are forced to competition with the countries which have low costs. Cotton needs to be supported more in order to prevent import. All of these make difficult the competition of our cotton manufacturer with the cotton manufacturers of other countries. Cultivation areas are gradually reducing and our manufacturers are directing to the carry out agriculture of different products’’.
Cotton is an important strategic product
Bayraktar who emphasized that cotton is an important strategic product at world agricultural trade which is export oriented and that creates employment with its value- added among agricultural products, plays role at becoming integrated of agriculture and industry sectors, stated ‘’Especially the share within total export of Turkish textile industry, foreign currency it brings in, value- added it provides, employment it creates enabled millions of people in our country to be included at this activity. All of these revealed that how cotton which is the raw material of textile industry is big in the sense of economic volume. This being the case, although our country ranks among the first lines at cotton rendement, due to the narrowing of cultivation areas in last 10 years, we have to carry our cotton import as we cannot meet the cotton consumption. Our country pays 2 billion dollar for the cotton it imports each year. Premium system is important for directing manufacture and protecting manufacturer income level. Support premium must be 1 lira and this support needs to be earned by the manufacturer in February- March before vegetation period starts.
Bayraktar who stated that it is difficult for manufacturer to maintain production at cotton unless taking the urgent measure, said ‘’We will have to carry out more import. It is essential to maintain support by increasing’’.
Bayraktar who expressed that manufacturer cannot meet the costs, recorded the following sentences:’’ Cotton is a plants which the inputs like fertilizer, ovary and pesticide are used densely when compared to its alternatives. Making a gain for our farmers is a must to maintain manufacture. With the effect of the high input prices in our country, the dispensation of our manufacture from cotton production will come to the fore in next years due to the lack of competition with the cotton manufacturers of other countries. To reduce input costs, VAT and Special Consumption Tax rates must be lowered which are received from the items like watering cost and ovary, pesticide, fertilizer, electricity and fuel’’.
Turkey will purchase 54 thousand bales of cotton
The Ministry of Agriculture of USA explained that their net cotton export connection is 441 thousand 800 bales at the week of 28th January of 2015/ 15 season which started on 1st August. At the same period, net connection amount for next season became 500 bales. According to the data of USDA, 54 thousand of bales of cotton export connection to Turkey. 184 thousand 500 with China, 127 thousand with Vietnam and 21 thousand 200 bales with Taiwan.
