Having spoken at the September meeting of İzmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO), Bekir Pakdemirli (PhD), Minister of Agriculture and Forestry said: "The country that feeds the world will be the leader. So we need to give much importance to agriculture,".
The Minister have been in Izmir for a series of examinations and contacts and participated in the September assembly meeting of IZTO. In his speech at the meeting, the Minister emphasized that the Presidential Government System works faster. Minister Pakdemirli also added: "There are 3,000 laws in Germany whereas there are 9,000 laws in Turkey. Some issues have to be solved by decree. If we select a person as our president then of course, that person will be the decision maker. We have to find the way to speed up the bureaucracy since the public is really expecting service."
The Sectors of the Future: Education and Agriculture
Minister Pakdemirli (PhD) stated that the sectors of the future are education and agriculture. And he explained: "A company that has not yet been established will be the largest company in the world in 2035. This company will be a company in the education sector and will be measured with trillion dollars. The second largest company will be in the agricultural sector. The country that feeds the world will be the leader country. That's why we have to give more importance to agriculture. The challenge that we must overcome is that as of today the world population is 7.5 billion and will be 9.1 billion by 2050. Urbanization rate is 55% today and will absolutely increase by 2050. While migration is inevitable, we have to increase food production by 50%. It seems impossible to do this diffucult homework without technology. There is a concept like 4.0 everywhere. So, we certainly have to use this 4.0 concept in the field of agriculture as well.
"We are in charge of Protecting both the Producer and the Consumer
The Minister Pakdemirli (PhD) stated that the Ministry is in charge with protecting both the producer and the consumer, and added that they are trying not to overwhelm the consumer with inflation. Minister also explained: "Turkey does not have a problem about wheat. We expect a significant increase related to wheat soon. As far as I know, there will be a positive development in wheat prices on Friday."
"I am a young Agriculture Minister I think I deserve a little credit"
Having evaluating the developments also in the field of Livestock, Minister Pakdemirli said:
"Please be sure that we are taking the necessary steps to solve structural problems in agriculture, but please try to be patient. Please give me some credit. I am a young agriculture minister so, I think I deserve a little credit. There is no problem in Turkey's protein production. Our meat preference is different. So, the sum of chicken meat, red meat and fish meat is much more than Turkey's need. Turkey has already passed its 2023 target in fish products export which is 1 billion $. I mean, if we change these preferences among themselves, then it is clear that there is no problem about meat in Turkey.
Having underlined that the attempts to destabilize Turkey, Minister Pakdemirli has expressed that he understands very well what the business world is experiencing these days, and he added: "but a little bit more patience is needed."