Union of Turkish Agricultural Chambers [TZOB] Chairman Şemsi Bayraktar said, “We totally produce 16,5 billion cost of wheat but we lose 1,4 billion Turkish Liras of it in producing and using.”

In his statement, Bayraktar stated that product losses in production and use reached great dimensions. Bayraktar emphasized that loss of grain in wheat due to unfavorable harvest and unstable and old harvesters are much more than losses in developed countries, claiming that the loss of grain should not pass 2%.

Bayraktar informed that the loss was not limited to this and that the product was wasted due to warehouse damages, unavailability of storage conditions, moisture loss, transportation losses etc. after the harvest.

“The value of the lost wheat exceeds 450 million dollars”

“According to the calculations made, about 5.5 percent of the wheat produced is lost in production, and 2.8 percent is lost in use, which is a great deal of difficulty, with nearly a tenth of the hard-earned crop lost without being consumed. Use in houses not included to this.”

“In 2016, Turkiye has produced 3 million 620 thousand tons of durum wheat and 16 million 980 thousand tons of bread wheat. At the producer prices, the monetary counterpart exceeds 16.5 billion liras. 8.3 percent of this is lost. The lost product value is approaching 1.4 billion liras at producer prices. The value in dollar terms exceeds 450 million dollars. Our country is not that rich. We have to do what needs to be done to bring this loss at the lowest level.”

ILKHA