Turkey Lays an Egg
Posted: November 2, 2009
Just in time for Thanksgiving, the country of Turkey dropped a big, fat egg on grain imports.
The U.S. Grains Council reports that last week, Turkey placed an unexpected ban on imports of biotech crops.
Turkey, the 27th largest export market for all U.S. goods, issued a new regulation on Oct. 26, 2009, placing additional requirements on all food and feed products containing genetically enhanced components. This new regulation essentially came without warning, according to U.S. Grains Council Regional Director in the Middle East and Subcontinent Joe O’Brien. “This ban came at us pretty much out of the blue,” he said. “This regulation impacts everything from a bag of potato chips to grains and co-products.”
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) reported on its Web site that this signifies approval of the fourth draft of a National Biosafety Law and is similar in nature to the draft reviewed last year. O’Brien said the potential impact is substantial to U.S. coarse grains and producers. For example, Turkey is the largest buyer of U.S. corn gluten feed (GCF) and the third-largest buyer of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Turkey imported 435,378 metric tons of CGF in 2008 and 202,422 tons in the first six months of 2009. Turkey imported 465,212 tons of U.S. DDGS in 2008 and 199,173 tons from January through August of this year. USTR reports the U.S. goods trade surplus with Turkey was $5.8 billion in 2008, an increase of $3.8 billion from 2007. USTR also notes the total value of U.S. “transgenic” crop exports to Turkey exceeded $1 billion in 2007, which are endangered depending on how this new regulation is implemented. O’Brien said one issue currently “up in the air” is the fate of the vessels currently on the water loaded with U.S. goods.
There is a good chance the regulation will be reviewed and possible reversed, but immediately after it was issued last week there was a big holiday in the country, which effectively shut down all government operations (it was Turkey Independence Day). USGC is working with USTR to get the decision changed.
Ethan Edwards Said,
November 3, 2009 @ 11:29 pm
Unless I missed something, Turkey is a sovereign state and can run their country the way they see fit.
Instead of complaining, the solution is to grow and market to them the type of grain and food products they want to import. Wasn’t the market economy in the U.S. built partly on the proposition that the customer is always right?
Suppliers must adjust to the demand, not complain that what the customer wants is not what we want to grow. Smart farmers will adjust to what Turkey — and other countries — want.
Mike Deering Said,
November 4, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
The fact of the matter is that consumers deserve a choice. This is a government decision that is strictly political and based on no sound science whatsoever. The trade in Turkey will suffer in a big way and they are working actively to educate the government on the science and safety of biotech derived products. Farmers do adjust to market demands- that is not the point. The point is consumers deserve a choice and should not be force-fed, so-to-speak. Newspapers in turkey are trying to show biotech as an evil, unsafe thing and that, Ethan, is not true if you place even the smallest amount of confidence in modern science.
Mike Deering
Ethan Edwards Said,
November 5, 2009 @ 10:47 pm
The fact of the matter is that Turkey is sovereign country and can decide to run their internal affairs as they see fit.
If we want to sell our grain and food products to them, we need to provide what they want. I support biotech, but whether biotech is good or bad isn’t the issue. The issue is whether we will be willing to supply what a customer says it wants.
If we aren’t willing, farmers in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, or Australia will be more than happy to jump into the breach. If we don’t adapt to market demand, we will only suffer.