Turkey: “There won't be an abnormal increase in potato prices”
Gaziomanpasa University (GOI) Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Gungor Yilmaz is conducting research…Gaziomanpasa University (GOI) Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Gungor Yilmaz is conducting research into potato consumption. He considers that given the cultivation area of potatoes this year, an increase in production on last year can be anticipated, he stated, “I do not think that there will be an abnormal increase in potato prices this year, I anticipate that the prices will stay at a reasonable level.”
Price increases are connected to supply and demand, Yilmaz said, “For close to 20 years, I have been conducting studies into potato consumption. If the annual potato production in Turkey cannot be increased, the price of the product will increase.”
Prof. Dr. Yilmaz reports that in Turkey around 4,600,000 tons of potatoes are consumed, last year 3,900,000 tons were produced, which meant a deficit in production of 700,000 tons was realised.
Due to this deficit in production, the price increased, Yilmaz emphasised, “We encountered this in 2014. In the previous year prices were low because of an excess in production.”
Yilmaz believes that because of the high prices last year the amount of land under potato production has increased, due to farmers thinking, “I’ll start growing and I’ll make money too.”
Yilmiz concluded his speech on the continuing autumn harvest, as follows:
“Spring was rainy this year. This had both positive and negative effects. In some places the rainy spring caused diseases which reduced production in some regions, but in general the rainfall provided growers with more product. The autumn harvest will continue until the end of November. When we take in to account the area under production this year, compared to last, we can expect more potato product.”