While carcass cutting prices were based on 190 liras, the weight of minced meat increased to 280 liras.
While domestic production is being completed, the ministry cannot find live animals to import from abroad.
The fact that Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı and Deputy General Manager of Meat and Milk Institution (ESK) Mustafa Kayhan went to Poland to make import connections revealed the extent of the crisis.
The commitment of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry not to import in livestock was shelved.
While hundreds of thousands of broodstock went to slaughter last year, especially due to the low milk prices, this situation also negatively affected the number of slaughtered animals.
With the decrease in the number of slaughter animals, the hikes in meat prices cannot be avoided.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Vahit Kirişci, promised that necessary measures would be taken with imports, citing speculation in meat prices.
However, at this point, livestock and meat imports could not prevent the increase in domestic prices, and the sector was dragged into a great uncertainty.
While the Meat and Dairy Institution signed a contract for the import of live animals from Uruguay, Hungary and Romania, a contract was signed for the import of carcass meat from Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, the inability to find enough livestock to be imported abroad further fueled the crisis in domestic meat prices.
HOW MUCH LIVE ANIMALS AND MEAT WILL TURKEY IMPORT FROM WHICH COUNTRY?
While a total of 7,500 butchery animals, including 4 thousand from Uruguay, one thousand from Romania and 2,500 from Hungary, were imported, a thousand tons of boneless meat from Bosnia and Herzegovina and 500 tons of carcass meat from Poland were signed. import contract.
After the meat and Dairy Agency bureaucrats' efforts to find animals abroad for weeks could not yield any results, the Deputy Minister of the IHC, İbrahim Yumaklı, went to Poland with the ISK general manager, revealing the crisis in meat.
While it is feared that the crisis will deepen with the arrival of Ramadan, it is noted that Minister Vahit Kirişci instructed the bureaucrats of the ministry to carry out all import-related processes confidentially in order to maintain his seat.
“ARE YOU AN ENEMY OF THE MANUFACTURER?”
On the other hand, the ESK slaughtered the animal it bought from the producer for 116 liras, while the carcass meat obtained from butchery animals imported from Hungary was sold to the butchers in Istanbul for 145 liras, which drew a great reaction from the producer.
The fact that the domestic producer did not increase the carcass cutting price and sold the carcass meat imported by the ESK for 145 liras in the market revealed the perspective of the ministry to the domestic producer, "Are you the enemy of the producer?" brought out their reactions.
While all the negativities in meat prices came one after another, the foot-and-mouth disease that broke out in many regions of Turkey in recent days caused great uneasiness in the sector.
It is stated that a type of foot and mouth disease that has not been seen so far has emerged and spread in a very short time. While it was emphasized that there is no vaccine against this type of disease, this situation caused great uneasiness in livestock producers.
It is stated that the producers started a serious slaughter of animals with the fear of contracting the disease. Meat prices are expected to decrease due to the increase in animal slaughter. While it is recorded that the Ministry is trying to hide the problem experienced in the field related to foot and mouth disease from the public, it is stated that the disease spread to Turkey from sheep imported from Syria in an uncontrolled manner.