Dried Fruit and Legume Products Promoted in the US

Ege Exporters' Associations continues to promote dried fruits, seafood products, fruit and vegetable products, olives and olive oil, cereals, legumes, oilseeds and non-wood forest products in the United States through the "TURQUALITY Project," which has been successfully implemented for two years with the participation of 6 food associations within the organization and is supported by the Ministry of Commerce. The Cereals, Legumes, Oilseeds and Products Tasting Event took place in the kitchen laboratory at UNLV-University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Las Vegas.  

Cereals and legumes sector accounts for 38 percent of Turkey's food exports to the United States

Mustafa Terci, Chairman of the Ege Exporters' Associations Legumes, Cereals, Oilseeds and Products Union, announced that agricultural product exports by Ege Exporters' Associations reached USD 1 billion 186 million in the first quarter of 2021, and continued as follows: "Food products make up USD 160 billion of the United States' approximately USD 2.6 trillion in imports. Our food exports to the United States in 2020 were at the level of USD 970 million nationwide. We want to increase this figure to USD 1.5 billion in 2023. Among the food sectors in which we are strong in the US market, cereals, legumes, oilseeds and products lead with USD 373 million in exports. Turkey's exports to the United States in this specific sector increased by 43 percent over the last three years. In our exports from the Aegean Region to the United States, we recorded a 61 percent increase over the last three years." Terci stated, "With our wide range of products from vegetable oils to spices, oilseeds such as poppy and sesame, confectionery products, legumes to coffee, our goal is to increase our exports to the United States to USD 1 billion. We will continue to effectively pursue our strategy, which is guided by the world's first and only state-supported branding program, towards institutionalization and creating strong value-added brands. During the pandemic period, we saw once more that countries that act in line with the times in agriculture and production policies and have command of the food market will always have a say." he said.  

The event concluded after information provided by Burak Hucuptan, Board Member of the Ege Exporters' Associations Legumes, Cereals, Oilseeds and Products Union, about the products and a tasting of healthy recipes prepared in sauces made with Cheese-Sauced Turkish Pasta, Mediterranean salad with poppy seeds and bulgur.

Burak Hucuptan said, "It has been scientifically proven that some foods cause the body to produce happiness hormones. Poppy seeds, which hold an important place in our country's culinary culture, owe this characteristic to the high amount of magnesium it contains. Our country, crowned with rich biodiversity, benefits from these advantages in agriculture and food sectors. Over the centuries, agricultural societies that spread from Anatolia to Europe and other continents shaped the world agricultural revolution."

Hucuptan emphasized that with Turkey's increasing agricultural product exports, the country occupies an important place in world agriculture and food supply in terms of both agricultural product industries and agricultural land covering a large portion of the country's territory.

"As Turkish agricultural exporters, we have committed ourselves to ensuring that our agricultural activities, steeped in thousands of years of experience and history, continue in a transparent, active, effective, sustainable, reliable and waste-reducing manner."

Chef Michelle: "To create a snacking effect in sauces, choose bulgur, which is a more fibrous and healthier alternative"

Chef Michelle noted that poppy seeds, with their rich content of magnesium, calcium, omega 3 and fiber, should have a place in healthy recipes of American cuisine.

Chef Lucio Arancibia: "Mediterranean Cuisine ranks at the top of the most preferred culinary cultures in America"

  Chef Lucio Arancibia stated that he was pleased to learn in a seminar on Culinary Arts in America that Mediterranean Cuisine is the most preferred culinary culture. The event, where Chef Michelle Vietmeier, who also serves as Director of the International Culinary School, prepared recipes consisting of Turkish Legumes, Cereals, Oilseeds and Products that offer healthy alternatives to recipes suited to the American palate with their rich fiber content, was attended by Chef Lucio Arancibia (CEC, AAC), whose career includes numerous achievements from executive chef positions at the most prestigious hotels in the United States to guest chef at the White House and the 'Chef of the Year - 1995' award given by the US Senate, Prof. Joseph Lema, Head of Hotel Management at UNLV, Dr. Betül Öztürk, Head of the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts School at İzmir Ekonomi University, and operations and purchasing managers of leading restaurants and hotels in the United States and the Las Vegas region.