International Egg and Poultry Review - By the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - This is a weekly report looking at international developments concerning the poultry industry, this week looking at Turkey's poultry situation.

Turkey's Poultry Situation

The Turkish poultry industry has aspirations of exporting poultry meat to the European Union (EU.) Back in September of 2004 a delegation of inspectors with the EU's Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) was sent by the EU Commission to inspect Turkey's poultry industry and assess it's governmental controls. Six processing facilities were inspected and a report was submitted to the EU's Public Health and Consumer Protection General Directorate (SANKO) and the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture. SANKO will be deciding whether poultry meat imports will be permitted from Turkey, as well as which facilities will be eligible.

Turkish authorities and industry representatives are optimistic of the outcome of the inspections even though the decision will be political and there are two areas in much need of improvement: analytical record keeping and residual controls. The report should provide a list of suggestions to eliminate these problems. According to Turkey's Customs Union agreement, it is supposed to be importing 19,000 metric tons (MT) of red meat from EU countries, however it has been banning imports of both red meat and poultry from all sources since 1996.

Demand and prices are beginning to rebound as market conditions have improved bringing prices back up to the cost of production (YTL 2.20 or USD 1.60 per kilogram.) Poultry meat production in 2004 totaled nearly 1 million metric tons (MMT) with approximately 50,000 MT being turkey meat and the remainder chicken meat. In 2005, exports of poultry slightly increased reaching 17,000 MT in the first four months with 11,000 MT of this total being meat (both turkey and chicken) and 6,000 MT chicken leg quarters. There has been an increase in exports of chicken legs to China and Hong Kong, and poultry meat to Azerbaijan, Iraq, Ukraine, Macedonia, and Uzbekistan.

Egg production is estimated at about 153 million a week, which is mostly unchanged from the start of 2005; however demand and prices have sharply declined recently from TL 120,000 per piece to TL 70,000 per piece. The estimated cost of production is at TL 90,000 per piece. In the first four months of 2005, Turkey exported 3,184 MT (about 50 million) hatching eggs and 7,573 MT (about 125 million) table eggs. In response, industry officials are asking for an export subsidy of USD 10 per 1,000 pieces, which is up 4 USD from its current level. Despite the fact there is no limit on total egg exports, exporters can only receive USD 4.68 per 1,000 pieces because the subsidy covers 78 percent of the total quantity.
Note: TL = Old Turkish Lira; YTL= New Turkish Lira

To view the full report, including tables please click here (PDF Format)

Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 13th July 2005