"Value-Added Production and Future Agricultural Applications" Webinar Held

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry hosted the third session of the online Agriculture and Forestry Future Summit under the title 'Value-Added Production and Future Agricultural Practices'. Hayrettin Uçak, Chairman of the Aegean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association, spoke at the webinar about contract farming, prevention of food waste, the importance of research and development and innovation in agriculture, and the effective use of digital technology. Saying that Turkey's agriculture sector turned the pandemic into an advantage, Uçak noted that many sectors achieved increases of 30-40 percent in exports. "Countries like ours, which are agricultural producers and net exporters, managed to keep their economies afloat through agriculture despite all adversities. It is in the hands of countries themselves to convert this situation into sustainable agricultural growth. When we speak of value-added production, we should not think only of the value obtained by processing a product. Among the most important factors in a product gaining added value is attributing a new quality to the product with the help of modern technological developments. Value can also be significantly added to a product through developments such as packaging, logistics, and shelf life extension. Our country is in a unique position in terms of diversity of agricultural products. Another major advantage of ours is that we have modern facilities capable of processing and evaluating many products produced in our country."

Call for cooperation from private sector, government institutions and universities

Hayrettin Uçak explained that a significant portion of tomato production, which exceeds 10 million tonnes per year, is evaluated as fresh produce, and that through its paste, dried form, ketchup and canned products it is both consumed in many sectors and generates foreign currency for the country. "Our tomato exports account for 5 percent of our total production. When tomatoes are processed to obtain secondary products, more than 15 percent of total production is exported. There are many ways to add value to a product. When the private sector, our government institutions, our universities, and our civil society organizations work together in a coordinated manner, the ways to add value to a product increase as well. The Far East market has become an important potential for our exports in recent years, particularly for products such as cherries and figs. Through the intensive efforts of our Ministry, technical barriers to cherry exports to China were removed in the first phase. Airlines also offered advantageous prices to exporters for these countries, and Turkish cherries, as a result of coordinated efforts, began finding buyers at considerably high prices in China."

Emphasis on contract production: Exporters should control every stage up to their own production

Informing that work has begun on varieties with longer shelf life, Uçak said, "To support value-added production, it is extremely important to implement many policies together, such as contract production, reduction of food losses, and achieving digital transformation in agriculture. The most important link in ensuring that an agricultural product reaches consumers in good quality is undoubtedly the production stage. On this matter, I believe contract production is also a correct model. First, the producer will have peace of mind, will know for whom and for what purpose he is producing, and will know how much he will earn when he delivers his product. The exporter will also have peace of mind; he will know that this producer is doing a specialized production for him and will apply pesticides in a controlled manner. Especially considering that fruit and vegetable production takes place on a large scale, contract production is not easy, but I believe it will become more widespread as its benefits are seen. In the tobacco sector, the contract production model is being implemented very successfully. When the exporter controls every stage up to their own production, there are no residue problems, and the value of the product increases," he said.

Producers must be made aware, research and development support should be increased

Uçak explained that another important issue is food losses, noting that losses reaching 30 percent are experienced in many products during harvest. "Education is very important; producers need to be made aware before harvesting each product. Awareness has also increased recently. To prevent waste and losses, project calls and interest from institutions and organizations have visibly increased. As Aegean Exporter Associations, we support certain projects and want to directly implement some projects. In this regard, it is important to bring technology into the picture, but what is really important, as I mentioned earlier, is education. If there were one or two projects in each province where production is intensive that highlighted awareness on this issue, I assure you it would have a significant impact. Speaking of technology, our institutions and companies need to emphasize research and development spending. Currently, the ratio of research and development investments to Gross Domestic Product in our country is around 1 percent, while the average for European Union countries is 2 percent and the OECD average is 2.7 percent. Our country has a target of increasing this ratio to 1.8 percent by 2023."

The path to agricultural development is Industry 4.0

Hayrettin Uçak said, "The country's land area is fixed, so to increase production you either have to produce in other countries or increase the productivity of your products at home. To increase productivity, you need to properly understand digitalization in agriculture. You need to examine examples from many countries and see their effects. There are excellent examples resulting from innovative ideas such as irrigation techniques, farm management systems, and precision agriculture applications based on image processing using unmanned aerial vehicles, which increase the productivity obtained from production. The support provided by our Ministry in this regard is of great importance in terms of encouragement."