1 March 2021 – Ülkü Karakuş, President of the Turkish Feed Millers Association, has praised Turkey’s feed sector resilience after a difficult 2020. Speaking on EKOTURK, he explained that production volumes last year were mostly unaffected in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, droughts, and global exchange rate volatility.
“Normally, we use 50-60% of our capacity. Last year, all factories increased their production. There is no shortage of finished goods in Turkey; there is a shortage of raw materials.”
Despite compound feed production increasing on average by 8%, Karakuş describes 2020 as a “non-year” due to the stockpiling trend in Q1 2020 that distorted supply and demand forecasts. This “food security panic” buying caused by COVID-19 led to a slump in May before steady growth returned in the second half of the year.
However, while production remained stable, feed raw material prices in Turkey saw exorbitant rises of around 60% compared to 2019, Karakuş said. There are many reasons for this: drought, global financial instability, and grain purchase competition between public institutions.
Imported ingredients saw the most considerable price hikes, with soybean and DDGS prices per tonne increasing by 85% ($232.93/tonne) and 69% ($135.59/tonne), respectively.
Karakuş commented: “Despite this price increase of 60%, we only increased feed prices by 46%. After the decline in the dollar, prices were expected to drop by 6-7% on average.”
He praised the “dynamism” of the private sector in absorbing this additional cost but stressed that these price rises had to be passed onto end-users.
“It would be a dream to expect a decrease in prices [during COVID-19]. Crises in the past have been overcome. We are still guessing about the effects of the future going day by day.”
M. Karakuş was confident in the stable growth of the compound feed sector. There are now more than 900 sites producing feed, premixes and feed additives. There is hope that this will decrease reliance on the imported raw materials, 10.89 million tonnes/year (worth $8.5 billion), required to meet demand.
When asked about future price changes, M. Karakuş implored the government to help support agricultural efficiency and vocational education, as well as provide financial aid for rural farmers.