Turkey’s Frozen Turkey Export While the demand for turkey meat in Turkey has increased recently, there has been a decline in exports this year compared to last year. White meat producers reported that the decline in turkey meat exports was due to the new type of coronavirus (Kovid-19) epidemic.
According to the information compiled by AA correspondent from the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the export income of turkey, which is marketed as whole, in pieces, fresh, frozen or with offal, has increased approximately 2 times in the 2015-2019 period. Turkey meat exports, which were at the level of 7.4 million dollars in 2015, increased to 21.4 million dollars in 2019.
In the January-October period of this year, the export figure in question decreased by 34.4 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to 11.9 million dollars.
The import of the product increased by 16 percent in the 10-month period of the year compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 941.7 thousand dollars.
Turkey meat production, on the other hand, recorded a limited annual increase of 1.2 percent in the January-October period and reached 48 thousand 955 tons.
“It is important to consume turkey meat outside of New Year’s Eve”
Naci Kaplan, Chairman of the White Meat Industrialists and Breeders’ Association (BESD-BIR), made an evaluation on the production and foreign trade data of turkey meat to the AA correspondent.
Kaplan stated that the interest in healthy and proper nutrition is increasing day by day in the world, “Turkey meat is one of the valuable protein sources with low fat and cholesterol levels in nutrition, just like chicken meat.” said.
Informing that turkey meat consumption per capita in Turkey is approximately 560 grams per year, Kaplan said that the consumption in European Union countries is around 6-7 kilograms.
Pointing out that it is important to consume turkey meat, which is a healthy alternative, not only at seasonal times such as New Year’s Eve, but also on other days of the year, Kaplan said, “Our goal in the upcoming period is to turn turkey into a continuous process and increase turkey meat consumption along with production.” he said.
“The year-end figures in turkey production will be close to the previous year”
Emphasizing that a total of 59,640 tons of turkey meat was produced in the country last year, of which 13,373 tons were exported, Kaplan said that they expect the year-end figures to be close to 2019.
