Erdoğan’s promise to open a thousand markets and questions left unanswered

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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"What are the reasons behind the fact that the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives lost 990 thousand Lira at Agricultural Credit markets in 2018?

"What are the reasons behind the loss of 41 million lira in 2019, which marked a 40-fold increase? Is there an investigation into this?

"While the products sold at Agricultural Credit markets are directly obtained from farmers without any intermediaries or commission agents, what are the reasons behind such a high increase in loss?

"What is the amount of the products bought by the Agricultural Credit markets from the farming partners? What is the share of the products bought from intermediaries apart from these partners?

"What is the current number of markets and personnel? Are there any new markets that you plan to open despite this picture?"

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Niğde MP Ömer Fethi Gürer has reminded the public about the unanswered questions that he raised in two separate Parliamentary questions about the loss made by the Agricultural Credit Markets at different dates.

The MP's statement came shortly after President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he instructed the opening of 1,000 agricultural credit markets across the country. CHP's Gürer has raised concerns that "while the input prices of the producers have been increasing, these markets cannot balance the prices."

According to CHP MP Gürer, with this move, President Erdoğan is trying to give the impression that the market prices are to be blamed for the high food prices in Turkey. He has defined the plans to open new agricultural credit markets as "a policy of saving the day."

Recalling that Erdoğan has increased the promised number of new markets from 500 to 1,000, Ömer Fethi Gürer has said:

This process shows that it will be offered as a solution as the prices will increase further; but the solution to this problem is not this. Without reducing the input prices of producers, increasing the cultivation area, controlling the system of intermediaries and doing a right and realistic planning, neither food security nor price balance can be ensured.

Referring to the Capital Markets Board (SPK) report, Gürer has recalled that the loss made by the Agricultural Credit Association Inc. increased from 990 thousand lira in 2018 to 41 million lira in 2019. The CHP MP has emphasized that in order to uncover the reasons behind this striking loss, it is a must to identify the amount of products purchased from the farming partners and from intermediaries as well as who these intermediaries are.

The MP has noted that the Agricultural Credit markets have been established to offer cheap products to customers by buying these products directly from the producers. "But when the practice is concerned, it is seen that there is a difference in this system. On the one hand, the public is told, 'We sell cheap products.' On the other, the institution makes millions of liras of loss by putting lower prices. Citizens are made to pay the price for this."

What happened?

President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently promised to open about a thousand cheap grocery stores.

During a visit to a grocery store run by the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkey in İstanbul on Sunday (October 3), he said, "As you see, this market is pretty fair in terms of products, quality and prices."

"Of course, there are instructions that we have given to the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives for a rapid increase in [the number of these stores]," Erdoğan said. He added that they plan to open about 1,000 stores in the first stage with each store being 500 square meters in size.

"Thus, we will hopefully be in an effort to deliver cheap and high quality products to our citizens and to balance the market," he said.

Turkey has seen a high increase in food prices over the past year. By the end of August, the annual increase in the food inflation rate was over 29 percent, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

President Erdoğan and the government have blamed large grocery chains for raising prices. "The necessary operations will be carried out against grocery chains. Five grocery chains collect all the products and the market turns upside down," Erdoğan said on September 23. (KÖ/SD)