The Turkish government has extended until the end of 2022 the zero duty on imports of some types of wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, chickpeas and lentils. Also, until the end of June, imports of sunflower oil are exempt from the duty, according to the official Turkish newspaper Gazette.
As ProAgro Group reports citing Reuters, preferential treatment of imports was to terminate at the end of 2021.
Official data published earlier in the country showed that grain production by Turkish farmers in 2021 decreased by 14.3% compared to the year before and amounted to about 31.9 million tons, while wheat production fell by 13.9% to 17.7 million tons.
Barley production fell by 30.7% to 5.8 million tons, and corn production rose by 3.8% to 6.8 million tons. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, oat production decreased by 12.2% to 276,000 tons.
Turkey is the largest regional buyer of grain, particularly wheat and barley, but it uses a significant portion of imports not for its own needs, but for the production of processed products for export. Due to last year’s poor harvest, the country canceled the import duty on a number of crops to keep prices on the domestic food market.
