Proceedings of the 13 th Meeting of the
COMCEC Agriculture Working Group
21
7. Contributions Contributions of International Institutions and
Private Sector
7.1. Agricultural Trade Policies: Private Sector Perspective
Mr. Erkan KAPLAN, Deputy Secretary General at the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) made a
presentation reflecting the private sector perspective on agricultural trade policies.
At the beginning of his presentation, Mr. KAPLAN highlighted briefly the agriculture in the global
and the COMCEC context. He stressed that OIC member countries, especially the net-importer Arab
countries have high potential for Turkish agricultural exports. However, Turkey has also been
competing with them in some prominent products such as olive, tomato and orange.
He informed participants of the evolution of Turkish agricultural policy. He pointed out that
agricultural policy has shifted its focus from “Agricultural Production & Farmer” towards “Food
Production, Consumer, Rural Factors And Protection of The Environment” As a result of this shift;
classical inputs (like price, production, tariffs, quota incentives , etc.) are replaced by Non-market
incentives for direct income, environment, food and water health, regional development.
Mr. KAPLAN continued his presentation with the activities of the TİM to increase the value added
in the sectors. He mentioned 5 major topics, namely entrepreneurship, innovation, R&D, branding
and design.
He concluded his presentation by giving the details of some innovation programs in agriculture
sector executed by the TİM such as TIM-TEB Start-up Houses Programs, Turkey Innovation Strategy
as well as some global initiatives in this respect.