Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı stated that they will remove the issue of red meat imports from the country's agenda by 2028.
Minister Yumaklı, who attended the opening of the Çankırı Veterinary Road Control and Inspection Station on the Samsun-İstanbul highway in the Ilgaz district of Çankırı, where he went to hold various meetings, explained that animal husbandry is a strategic sector in terms of both industrial production and meeting a significant portion of the food needs of citizens.
Pointing out the importance of sustainability of animal production, Yumaklı said that in the last 23 years, cattle stock increased by 71 percent to 17 million heads, sheep stock increased by 72 percent to 55 million heads, and poultry stock increased by 55 percent to 380 million heads.
Minister Yumaklı stated that these figures show that all animal production has increased by at least 2 to 4 times, and shared the following information:
“This success we have achieved in animal production has certainly carried us to important places in the world rankings. When we look at the cattle stock on a global scale, we are 22nd and 2nd in Europe. When we look at the sheep stock, we are 7th in the world and first in Europe. In beef production, we are 7th in the world and 1st in Europe. In chicken meat production, we are 9th in the world and 2nd in Europe. In egg production, we are 10th in the world and 2nd in Europe. In honey production, we are 2nd in the world and 1st in Europe. As you can see, our production power is also extremely important for the geography we are in, but we are also an important producer country in the world rankings as all countries have their eyes on us. If we have to talk about our animal production exports, we can say that our exports have increased 2002-fold compared to 14 and reached 3,5 billion dollars.”
Yumaklı stated that the adequacy in red meat is 95 percent and said, “Meat imports, which have been carried out by the private sector for 14 years, are being carried out by the Meat and Milk Institution as of 2024 within the framework of our principle that the regulation task should be completely in public institutions. With this regulation, we have both ended some monopolization issues in the private sector and at the same time prevented the exorbitant price increases that sometimes come to the agenda of our citizens. Especially the exorbitant price increases before every Ramadan have not occurred this year.”
“WE ENCOUNTER SOME STATEMENTS THAT GIVE THE IMPRESSION THAT AN EXORBITANT PRICE INCREASE HAS NOT HAPPENED, EVEN THOUGH IT HAS”
Yumaklı, who pointed out that the measures they took to prevent exorbitant price increases were of great importance, continued as follows:
“The Meat and Milk Board has also increased its livestock stock during this period. Producer unions, butchers, and breeders have supported the process. The Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Competition Board have also initiated the necessary investigations regarding the exorbitant price increases. On these blessed days regarding meat supply, I can thank God and say with all my sincerity and peace of mind that there is no problem or issue in our country. There is no reason that would necessitate a price increase. Why do we insistently state that this will not happen? Because while much more successful results have been obtained in this regard compared to previous years, we unfortunately come across some statements that give the impression that this is what happened when there was no exorbitant price increase as of the beginning of this Ramadan. I wanted to express this here.”
Minister Yumaklı emphasized that the ultimate goal for red meat is to completely remove the import issue from the country's agenda, and touched upon the increasing population growth and food nationalism that has been talked about recently in the world.
Yumaklı stated that they need to shape their vision, policies and actions according to both the increasing needs and these issues, and said:
“This reality also required us to take much more effective and faster measures. A year ago, we announced the livestock roadmap; it is for 5 years and we are fulfilling all the elements of this roadmap. The most important aspect of our roadmap was the Animal Husbandry Production Development Project in cooperation with the Meat and Milk Institution and TİGEM. I would like to say that this project is extremely successful and will provide very serious benefits to all our breeders and producers. Of course, this will also pave the way for our consumers to reach products at affordable prices.
Another important issue was increasing our breeding stock and increasing our production accordingly. Simultaneously with these policies, our President announced the ‘Rural Abundance, Livestock Support Project’. With this project, we have received applications that are perhaps much higher than our estimates in the recent period. I would like to thank all of our producers and breeders who applied from here. We will meet their needs until 2028 as our President announced, and as we have said, 2028 is our target year, and we will hopefully remove the issue of red meat imports from the country’s agenda by 2028.”
“HEALTHY ANIMALS INDICATE HEALTHY FOOD CONSUMPTION”
Yumaklı stated that another important heading of the livestock roadmap is the fight against animal diseases, and noted that healthy animals mean healthy food consumption.
In this context, Yumaklı stated that the General Directorate of Food Control and all employees in the provincial organization joined hands and initiated serious action to combat animal diseases that deal a great blow to the economy and prevent them from achieving their goals, and he touched on the fact that preventing uncontrolled animal movements is one of these.
“Road control points were also extremely important in terms of ensuring the movement of healthy animals,” said Yumaklı, “We will open 8 of these at very important intersections throughout Turkey. We opened the first 3; in Erzurum, Elazığ and Ankara. The fourth one is being opened here in Çankırı today. I would like to say that 3 vehicles were checked in the 11 active stations, 682 of which were suitable and 349 of which were not. Among the non-compliances detected were animals infected with foot and mouth disease, and unfortunately animals smuggled out of the surveillance and quarantine zone with fake veterinary reports. We have always said and will say again; we have no tolerance and will not have any. We are proceeding with zero tolerance.”
Following the speech, the Çankırı Veterinary Road Control and Inspection Station was opened.
